CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for 'Tactical Targeting'
5 hours ago
- #privacy concerns
- #government surveillance
- #facial recognition
- CBP plans to spend $225,000 for a year of access to Clearview AI's facial recognition tool.
- Clearview AI provides access to over 60 billion publicly available images scraped from the internet.
- The tool will be used for tactical targeting and strategic counter-network analysis by CBP's intelligence units.
- The contract involves handling sensitive personal data, including biometric identifiers, with nondisclosure agreements required.
- Concerns raised over the use of facial recognition in federal enforcement operations, including privacy and civil liberties issues.
- Senator Ed Markey introduced legislation to bar ICE and CBP from using facial recognition technology due to lack of clear limits and transparency.
- Clearview AI's business model involves scraping photos from public websites without consent, raising ethical concerns.
- CBP's Traveler Verification System does not use commercial or publicly available data, but Clearview may be linked to the Automated Targeting System.
- NIST testing found facial recognition systems perform well on high-quality photos but have high error rates in less controlled settings.
- Agencies may use the technology in an investigative setting, returning a ranked list of candidates for human review rather than a single match.