Maybe that’s what the Zeta cartel uses to keep track of migrants in transit through Mexico: they take pictures of them in Chiapas, and by the time they get to Mexico’s Northern Border they can “greet” them by name! It’s a parallel “government” dedicated to profiting from these poor desperate helpless souls...
Regards / Saludos / Grato Andrés Leopoldo Pacheco Sanfuentes > On Jan 18, 2020, at 12:48 PM, Yosem Companys <[email protected]> wrote: > > > The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It > A little-known startup helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people > to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,” > a backer says. > > Until recently, Hoan Ton-That’s greatest hits included an obscure iPhone game > and an app that let people put Donald Trump’s distinctive yellow hair on > their own photos. > > Then Mr. Ton-That — an Australian techie and onetime model — did something > momentous: He invented a tool that could end your ability to walk down the > street anonymously, and provided it to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, > ranging from local cops in Florida to the F.B.I. and the Department of > Homeland Security. > > His tiny company, Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition > app. You take a picture of a person, upload it and get to see public photos > of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared. The system — > whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview > claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other > websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States > government or Silicon Valley giants. > > Federal and state law enforcement officers said that while they had only > limited knowledge of how Clearview works and who is behind it, they had used > its app to help solve shoplifting, identity theft, credit card fraud, murder, > and child sexual exploitation cases. > > Until now, technology that readily identifies everyone based on his or her > face has been taboo because of its radical erosion of privacy. Tech companies > capable of releasing such a tool have refrained from doing so; in 2011, > Google’s chairman at the time said it was the one technology the company had > held back because it could be used “in a very bad way.” Some large cities, > including San Francisco, have barred police from using facial recognition > technology. > > But without public scrutiny, more than 600 law enforcement agencies have > started using Clearview in the past year, according to the company, which > declined to provide a list. The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by > The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with > augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every > person they saw. The tool could identify activists at a protest or an > attractive stranger on the subway, revealing not just their names but where > they lived, what they did and whom they knew. > > And it’s not just law enforcement: Clearview has also licensed the app to at > least a handful of companies for security purposes. > > “The weaponization possibilities of this are endless,” said Eric Goldman, > co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. > “Imagine a rogue law enforcement officer who wants to stalk potential > romantic partners, or a foreign government using this to dig up secrets about > people to blackmail them or throw them in jail.” > > Clearview has shrouded itself in secrecy, avoiding debate about its > boundary-pushing technology. When I began looking into the company in > November, its website was a bare page showing a nonexistent Manhattan address > as its place of business. The company’s one employee listed on LinkedIn, a > sales manager named “John Good,” turned out to be Mr. Ton-That, using a fake > name. For a month, people affiliated with the company would not return my > emails or phone calls. > > While the company was dodging me, it was also monitoring me. At my request, a > number of police officers had run my photo through the Clearview app. They > soon received phone calls from company representatives asking if they were > talking to the media — a sign that Clearview has the ability and, in this > case, the appetite to monitor whom law enforcement is searching for. > > Facial recognition technology has always been controversial. It makes people > nervous about Big Brother. It has a tendency to deliver false matches for > certain groups, like people of color. And some facial recognition products > used by the police — including Clearview’s — haven’t been vetted by > independent experts. > > Clearview’s app carries extra risks because law enforcement agencies are > uploading sensitive photos to the servers of a company whose ability to > protect its data is untested. > > The company eventually started answering my questions, saying that its > earlier silence was typical of an early-stage startup in stealth mode. Mr. > Ton-That acknowledged designing a prototype for use with augmented-reality > glasses but said the company had no plans to release it. And he said my photo > had rung alarm bells because the app “flags possible anomalous search > behavior” in order to prevent users from conducting what it deemed > “inappropriate searches.” > > In addition to Mr. Ton-That, Clearview was founded by Richard Schwartz — who > was an aide to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was mayor of New York — and backed > financially by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist behind Facebook and Palantir. > > Another early investor is a small firm called Kirenaga Partners. Its founder, > David Scalzo, dismissed concerns about Clearview making the internet > searchable by face, saying it’s a valuable crime-solving tool. > > “I’ve come to the conclusion that because information constantly increases, > there’s never going to be privacy,” Mr. Scalzo said. “Laws have to determine > what’s legal, but you can’t ban technology. Sure, that might lead to a > dystopian future or something, but you can’t ban it.” > > Mr. Ton-That, 31, grew up a long way from Silicon Valley. In his native > Australia, he was raised on tales of his royal ancestors in Vietnam. In 2007, > he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco. The iPhone had just > arrived, and his goal was to get in early on what he expected would be a > vibrant market for social media apps. But his early ventures never gained > real traction. > > In 2009, Mr. Ton-That created a site that let people share links to videos > with all the contacts in their instant messengers. Mr. Ton-That shut it down > after it was branded a “phishing scam.” In 2015, he spun up Trump Hair, which > added Mr. Trump’s distinctive coif to people in a photo, and a photo-sharing > program. Both fizzled. > > Dispirited, Mr. Ton-That moved to New York in 2016. Tall and slender, with > long black hair, he considered a modeling career, he said, but after one > shoot he returned to trying to figure out the next big thing in tech. He > started reading academic papers on artificial intelligence, image recognition > and machine learning. > > Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Ton-That met in 2016 at a book event at the Manhattan > Institute, a conservative think tank. Mr. Schwartz, now 61, had amassed an > impressive Rolodex working for Mr. Giuliani in the 1990s and serving as the > editorial page editor of The New York Daily News in the early 2000s. The two > soon decided to go into the facial recognition business together: Mr. > Ton-That would build the app, and Mr. Schwartz would use his contacts to drum > up commercial interest. > > Police departments have had access to facial recognition tools for almost 20 > years, but they have historically been limited to searching > government-provided images, such as mug shots and driver’s license photos. In > recent years, facial recognition algorithms have improved in accuracy, and > companies like Amazon offer products that can create a facial recognition > program for any database of images. > > Mr. Ton-That wanted to go way beyond that. He began in 2016 by recruiting a > couple of engineers. One helped design a program that can automatically > collect images of people’s faces from across the internet, such as employment > sites, news sites, educational sites, and social networks including Facebook, > YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and even Venmo. Representatives of those > companies said their policies prohibit such scraping, and Twitter said it > explicitly banned use of its data for facial recognition. > > Another engineer was hired to perfect a facial recognition algorithm that was > derived from academic papers. The result: a system that uses what Mr. > Ton-That described as a “state-of-the-art neural net” to convert all the > images into mathematical formulas, or vectors, based on facial geometry — > like how far apart a person’s eyes are. Clearview created a vast directory > that clustered all the photos with similar vectors into “neighborhoods.” When > a user uploads a photo of a face into Clearview’s system, it converts the > face into a vector and then shows all the scraped photos stored in that > vector’s neighborhood — along with the links to the sites from which those > images came. > > Mr. Schwartz paid for server costs and basic expenses, but the operation was > bare bones; everyone worked from home. “I was living on credit card debt,” > Mr. Ton-That said. “Plus, I was a Bitcoin believer, so I had some of those.” > > Going Viral With Law Enforcement > By the end of 2017, the company had a formidable facial recognition tool, > which it called Smartcheckr. But Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Ton-That weren’t sure > whom they were going to sell it to. > > Maybe it could be used to vet babysitters or as an add-on feature for > surveillance cameras. What about a tool for security guards in the lobbies of > buildings or to help hotels greet guests by name? “We thought of every idea,” > Mr. Ton-That said. > > One of the odder pitches, in late 2017, was to Paul Nehlen — an anti-Semite > and self-described “pro-white” Republican running for Congress in Wisconsin — > to use “unconventional databases” for “extreme opposition research,” > according to a document provided to Mr. Nehlen and later posted online. Mr. > Ton-That said the company never actually offered such services. > > The company soon changed its name to Clearview AI and began marketing to law > enforcement. That was when the company got its first round of funding from > outside investors: Mr. Thiel and Kirenaga Partners. Among other things, Mr. > Thiel was famous for secretly financing Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit that bankrupted > the popular website Gawker. Both Mr. Thiel and Mr. Ton-That had been the > subject of negative articles by Gawker. > > “In 2017, Peter gave a talented young founder $200,000, which two years later > converted to equity in Clearview AI,” said Jeremiah Hall, Mr. Thiel’s > spokesman. “That was Peter’s only contribution; he is not involved in the > company.” > > Even after a second funding round in 2019, Clearview remains tiny, having > raised $7 million from investors, according to Pitchbook, a website that > tracks investments in startups. The company declined to confirm the amount. > > In February, the Indiana State Police started experimenting with Clearview. > They solved a case within 20 minutes of using the app. Two men had gotten > into a fight in a park, and it ended when one shot the other in the stomach. > A bystander recorded the crime on a phone, so the police had a still of the > gunman’s face to run through Clearview’s app. > > They immediately got a match: The man appeared in a video that someone had > posted on social media, and his name was included in a caption on the video. > “He did not have a driver’s license and hadn’t been arrested as an adult, so > he wasn’t in government databases,” said Chuck Cohen, an Indiana State Police > captain at the time. > > The man was arrested and charged; Mr. Cohen said he probably wouldn’t have > been identified without the ability to search social media for his face. The > Indiana State Police became Clearview’s first paying customer, according to > the company. (The police declined to comment beyond saying that they tested > Clearview’s app.) > > Clearview deployed current and former Republican officials to approach police > forces, offering free trials and annual licenses for as little as $2,000. Mr. > Schwartz tapped his political connections to help make government officials > aware of the tool, according to Mr. Ton-That. (“I’m thrilled to have the > opportunity to help Hoan build Clearview into a mission-driven organization > that’s helping law enforcement protect children and enhance the safety of > communities across the country,” Mr. Schwartz said through a spokeswoman.) > > The company’s main contact for customers was Jessica Medeiros Garrison, who > managed Luther Strange’s Republican campaign for Alabama attorney general. > Brandon Fricke, an N.F.L. agent engaged to the Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren, > said in a financial disclosure report during a congressional campaign in > California that he was a “growth consultant” for the company. (Clearview said > that it was a brief, unpaid role, and that the company had enlisted Democrats > to help market its product as well.) > > The company’s most effective sales technique was offering 30-day free trials > to officers, who then encouraged their acquisition departments to sign up and > praised the tool to officers from other police departments at conferences and > online, according to the company and documents provided by police departments > in response to public-record requests. Mr. Ton-That finally had his viral hit. > > In July, a detective in Clifton, N.J., urged his captain in an email to buy > the software because it was “able to identify a suspect in a matter of > seconds.” During the department’s free trial, Clearview had identified > shoplifters, an Apple Store thief and a good Samaritan who had punched out a > man threatening people with a knife. > > Photos “could be covertly taken with telephoto lens and input into the > software, without ‘burning’ the surveillance operation,” the detective wrote > in the email, provided to The Times by two researchers, Beryl Lipton of > MuckRock and Freddy Martinez of Open the Government. They discovered > Clearview late last year while looking into how local police departments are > using facial recognition. > > According to a Clearview sales presentation reviewed by The Times, the app > helped identify a range of individuals: a person who was accused of sexually > abusing a child whose face appeared in the mirror of someone’s else gym > photo; the person behind a string of mailbox thefts in Atlanta; a John Doe > found dead on an Alabama sidewalk; and suspects in multiple identity-fraud > cases at banks. > > In Gainesville, Fla., Detective Sgt. Nick Ferrara heard about Clearview last > summer when it advertised on CrimeDex, a listserv for investigators who > specialize in financial crimes. He said he had previously relied solely on a > state-provided facial recognition tool, FACES, which draws from more than 30 > million Florida mug shots and Department of Motor Vehicle photos. > > Sergeant Ferrara found Clearview’s app superior, he said. Its nationwide > database of images is much larger, and unlike FACES, Clearview’s algorithm > doesn’t require photos of people looking straight at the camera. > > “With Clearview, you can use photos that aren’t perfect,” Sergeant Ferrara > said. “A person can be wearing a hat or glasses, or it can be a profile shot > or partial view of their face.” > > He uploaded his own photo to the system, and it brought up his Venmo page. He > ran photos from old, dead-end cases and identified more than 30 suspects. In > September, the Gainesville Police Department paid $10,000 for an annual > Clearview license. > > Federal law enforcement, including the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland > Security, are trying it, as are Canadian law enforcement authorities, > according to the company and government officials. > > Despite its growing popularity, Clearview avoided public mention until the > end of 2019, when Florida prosecutors charged a woman with grand theft after > two grills and a vacuum were stolen from an Ace Hardware store in Clermont. > She was identified when the police ran a still from a surveillance video > through Clearview, which led them to her Facebook page. A tattoo visible in > the surveillance video and Facebook photos confirmed her identity, according > to an affidavit in the case. > > ‘We’re All Screwed’ > Mr. Ton-That said the tool does not always work. Most of the photos in > Clearview’s database are taken at eye level. Much of the material that the > police upload is from surveillance cameras mounted on ceilings or high on > walls. > > “They put surveillance cameras too high,” Mr. Ton-That lamented. “The angle > is wrong for good face recognition.” > > Despite that, the company said, its tool finds matches up to 75 percent of > the time. But it is unclear how often the tool delivers false matches, > because it has not been tested by an independent party such as the National > Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency that rates the > performance of facial recognition algorithms. > > “We have no data to suggest this tool is accurate,” said Clare Garvie, a > researcher at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, who > has studied the government’s use of facial recognition. “The larger the > database, the larger the risk of misidentification because of the > doppelgänger effect. They’re talking about a massive database of random > people they’ve found on the internet.” > > But current and former law enforcement officials say the app is effective. > “For us, the testing was whether it worked or not,” said Mr. Cohen, the > former Indiana State Police captain. > > One reason that Clearview is catching on is that its service is unique. > That’s because Facebook and other social media sites prohibit people from > scraping users’ images — Clearview is violating the sites’ terms of service. > > “A lot of people are doing it,” Mr. Ton-That shrugged. “Facebook knows.” > > Jay Nancarrow, a Facebook spokesman, said the company was reviewing the > situation with Clearview and “will take appropriate action if we find they > are violating our rules.” > > Mr. Thiel, the Clearview investor, sits on Facebook’s board. Mr. Nancarrow > declined to comment on Mr. Thiel's personal investments. > > Some law enforcement officials said they didn’t realize the photos they > uploaded were being sent to and stored on Clearview’s servers. Clearview > tries to pre-empt concerns with an F.A.Q. document given to would-be clients > that says its customer-support employees won’t look at the photos that the > police upload. > > Clearview also hired Paul D. Clement, a United States solicitor general under > President George W. Bush, to assuage concerns about the app’s legality. > > In an August memo that Clearview provided to potential customers, including > the Atlanta Police Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in > Florida, Mr. Clement said law enforcement agencies “do not violate the > federal Constitution or relevant existing state biometric and privacy laws > when using Clearview for its intended purpose.” > > Mr. Clement, now a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, wrote that the authorities > don’t have to tell defendants that they were identified via Clearview, as > long as it isn’t the sole basis for getting a warrant to arrest them. Mr. > Clement did not respond to multiple requests for comment. > > The memo appeared to be effective; the Atlanta police and Pinellas County > Sheriff’s Office soon started using Clearview. > > Because the police upload photos of people they’re trying to identify, > Clearview possesses a growing database of individuals who have attracted > attention from law enforcement. The company also has the ability to > manipulate the results that the police see. After the company realized I was > asking officers to run my photo through the app, my face was flagged by > Clearview’s systems and for a while showed no matches. When asked about this, > Mr. Ton-That laughed and called it a “software bug.” > > “It’s creepy what they’re doing, but there will be many more of these > companies. There is no monopoly on math,” said Al Gidari, a privacy professor > at Stanford Law School. “Absent a very strong federal privacy law, we’re all > screwed.” > > Mr. Ton-That said his company used only publicly available images. If you > change a privacy setting in Facebook so that search engines can’t link to > your profile, your Facebook photos won’t be included in the database, he said. > > But if your profile has already been scraped, it is too late. The company > keeps all the images it has scraped even if they are later deleted or taken > down, though Mr. Ton-That said the company was working on a tool that would > let people request that images be removed if they had been taken down from > the website of origin. > > Woodrow Hartzog, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern > University in Boston, sees Clearview as the latest proof that facial > recognition should be banned in the United States. > > “We’ve relied on industry efforts to self-police and not embrace such a risky > technology, but now those dams are breaking because there is so much money on > the table,” Mr. Hartzog said. “I don’t see a future where we harness the > benefits of face recognition technology without the crippling abuse of the > surveillance that comes with it. The only way to stop it is to ban it.” > > Where Everybody Knows Your Name > During a recent interview at Clearview’s offices in a WeWork location in > Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, Mr. Ton-That demonstrated the app on > himself. He took a selfie and uploaded it. The app pulled up 23 photos of > him. In one, he is shirtless and lighting a cigarette while covered in what > looks like blood. > > Mr. Ton-That then took my photo with the app. The “software bug” had been > fixed, and now my photo returned numerous results, dating back a decade, > including photos of myself that I had never seen before. When I used my hand > to cover my nose and the bottom of my face, the app still returned seven > correct matches for me. > > Police officers and Clearview’s investors predict that its app will > eventually be available to the public. > > Mr. Ton-That said he was reluctant. “There’s always going to be a community > of bad people who will misuse it,” he said. > > Even if Clearview doesn’t make its app publicly available, a copycat company > might, now that the taboo is broken. Searching someone by face could become > as easy as Googling a name. Strangers would be able to listen in on sensitive > conversations, take photos of the participants and know personal secrets. > Someone walking down the street would be immediately identifiable — and his > or her home address would be only a few clicks away. It would herald the end > of public anonymity. > > Asked about the implications of bringing such a power into the world, Mr. > Ton-That seemed taken aback. > > “I have to think about that,” he said. “Our belief is that this is the best > use of the technology.” > > Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Gabriel J.X. Dance and Aaron Krolik contributed > reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research. > > Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter based in New York. She writes about the > unexpected and sometimes ominous ways technology is changing our lives, > particularly when it comes to our privacy. @kashhill > > > The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It > A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people > to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,”… > NYTIMES.COM > > > > > -- > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial > search engine. 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