Clearview AI Has Billions of Our Photos. Its Entire Client List Was Just Stolen by Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Updated 1:24 PM ET, Wed February 26, 2020

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Clearview AI has billions of our photos. Its entire client list was just stolen By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Updated 1:24 PM ET, Wed February 26, 2020 New York (CNN Business)Clearview AI, a startup that compiles billions of photos for facial recognition technology, said it lost its entire client list to hackers. The company said it has patched the unspecified flaw that allowed the breach to happen. In a statement, Clearview AI's attorney Tor Ekeland said that while security is the company's top priority, "unfortunately, data breaches are a part of life. Our servers were never accessed." He added that the company continues to strengthen its security procedures and that the flaw has been patched. Clearview AI continues "to work to strengthen our security," Ekeland said. In a notification sent to customers obtained by Daily Beast, Clearview AI said that an intruder "gained unauthorized access" to its customer list, which includes police forces, law enforcement agencies and banks. The company said that the person didn't obtain any search histories conducted by customers, which include some police forces. The company claims to have scraped more than 3 billion photos from the internet, including photos from popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The firm garnered controversy in January after a New York Times investigation revealed that Clearview AI's technology allowed law enforcement agencies to use its technology to match photos of unknown faces to people's online images. The company also retains those photos in its database even after internet users delete them from the platforms or make their accounts private. That prompted cease-and-desist letters from tech giants Twitter (TWTR), Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB). Some states, such as New Jersey, even enacted a statewide ban on law enforcement agencies using Clearview while it investigates the software. In an interview with CNN Business earlier this month, Clearview AI founder and CEO Hoan Ton-That downplayed concerns about his technology. He said he wants to build a "great American company" with "the best of intentions." He said he wouldn't sell his product to Iran, Russia or China and claimed the technology is saving kids and solving crimes. --CNN Business' Donie O'Sullivan contributed to this report. .

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EUROPEAN DIGITAL RIGHTS A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF BIOMETRIC MASS SURVEILLANCE PRACTICES IN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, AND POLAND By Luca Montag, Rory Mcleod, Lara De Mets, Meghan Gauld, Fraser Rodger, and Mateusz Pełka EDRi - EUROPEAN DIGITAL RIGHTS 2 INDEX About the Edinburgh 1.4.5 ‘Biometric-Ready’ International Justice Cameras 38 Initiative (EIJI) 5 1.4.5.1 The right to dignity 38 Introductory Note 6 1.4.5.2 Structural List of Abbreviations 9 Discrimination 39 1.4.5.3 Proportionality 40 Key Terms 10 2. Fingerprints on Personal Foreword from European Identity Cards 42 Digital Rights (EDRi) 12 2.1 Analysis 43 Introduction to Germany 2.1.1 Human rights country study from EDRi 15 concerns 43 Germany 17 2.1.2 Consent 44 1 Facial Recognition 19 2.1.3 Access Extension 44 1.1 Local Government 19 3. Online Age and Identity 1.1.1 Case Study – ‘Verification’ 46 Cologne 20 3.1 Analysis 47 1.2 Federal Government 22 4. COVID-19 Responses 49 1.3 Biometric Technology 4.1 Analysis 50 Providers in Germany 23 4.2 The Convenience 1.3.1 Hardware 23 of Control 51 1.3.2 Software 25 5. Conclusion 53 1.4 Legal Analysis 31 Introduction to the Netherlands 1.4.1 German Law 31 country study from EDRi 55 1.4.1.1 Scope 31 The Netherlands 57 1.4.1.2 Necessity 33 1. Deployments by Public 1.4.2 EU Law 34 Entities 60 1.4.3 European 1.1. Dutch police and law Convention on enforcement authorities 61 Human Rights 37 1.1.1 CATCH Facial 1.4.4 International Recognition Human Rights Law 37 Surveillance Technology 61 1.1.1.1 CATCH - Legal Analysis 64 EDRi - EUROPEAN DIGITAL RIGHTS 3 1.1.2.
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