Ukraine’s defence ministry began using Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology last week, according to the company’s CEO. This reportedly happened after the American company offered to track down Russian assailants, combat misinformation and identify the dead.
As reported, Ukraine will get free access to Clearview AI’s face search engine, which may be used to vet people of interest at checkpoints, among other things, according to Lee Wolosky, a Clearview adviser and former American diplomat under President Barack Obama.
The preparations reportedly started to take shape when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Clearview chief executive officer Hoan Ton-That addressed a letter to Kyiv, offering aid.
The company, which has been surrounded by controversies, also confirmed that it had not given the equipment to Russia, which has described its efforts in Ukraine as a “special operation”.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a war against Ukraine, several western companies pledged to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including billionaire Elon Musk and Clearview.
According to the founder of Clearview, the company had access to over 2 billion images from the Russian social media service VKontakte, of the database of over 10 billion photos.
As reported, Clearview’s Ton-That claimed that this technology might be used to reconcile refugees with their families, identify Russian spies and assist the government in debunking bogus war-related social media posts. Currently, the specific objective of the technology’s use by Ukraine’s defence ministry is unknown.
CLEARVIEW CONTROVERSY
Data protection activists have filed complaints against Clearview AI in several countries. Protesters from Europe claimed that the software — a search engine for faces that sifts through billions of photos — violates the strict privacy rules of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
This debate underlines that advancement of artificial intelligence technology could lead to unprecedented levels of surveillance.
Facial recognition software are being developed by hundreds of companies all over the world. But no other company has received as much criticism as Clearview AI.
The company’s technology is built on a biometric database that includes billions of photographs collected from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
When a paying user uploads a photo, the programme returns all other images of the person it possesses, as well as information about who he or she is most likely.
Law enforcement agencies have defended the use of the software to identify child abuse victims and perpetrators, as well as to combat terrorism. It was used by American authorities to identify some of the rioters participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. But activists have been warning against the human rights abuse caused by technology.
Regulators from Australia to the United States have been looking into Clearview AI’s software as allegations first surfaced in early 2020. Canada’s privacy commissioner had decided that the usage by its police was a severe breach of privacy rules.
But nowhere has the response been louder than in Europe, which prides itself on being a global pioneer in data security. In the United States too, the company is facing a lawsuit, accusing Clearview of violating privacy rights by taking images from the web.
However, the company executive claimed that Clearview should never be used as the sole means of identification and that he would not want the technology to be used in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which established legal guidelines for humanitarian treatment during wartime.
According to Ton-That, those in Ukraine, like other users, are being trained and must enter a case number and purpose for a search before making a query.
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