‘I’d never seen such an audacious attack on anonymity before’: Clearview AI and the creepy tech that can identify you with a single picture

Technology

In this extract from “Your Face Belongs to Us” (Simon & Schuster, 2023), journalist Kashmir Hill recalls the emergence of Clearview AI, the facial recognition technology company that burst into public consciousness with its artificial intelligence (AI) software that could supposedly identify pretty much anyone with just a single shot of their face.In November 2019, I had just become a reporter at The New York Times when I got a tip that seemed too outrageous to be true: A mysterious company called Clearview AI claimed it could identify just about anyone based only on a snapshot of their face.I was in a hotel room in Switzerland when I got the email, on the last international plane trip I would take for a while because I was six months pregnant. It was the end of a long day and I was tired but the email gave me a jolt. My source had unearthed a legal memo marked “Privileged & Confidential” in which a lawyer for Clearview had said that the company had scraped billions of photos from the public web, including social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to create a revolutionary app.Give Clearview a photo of a random person on the street, and it would spit back all the places on the internet where it had spotted their face, potentially revealing not just their name but other personal details about their life. The company was selling this superpower to police departments around the country but trying to keep its existence a secret.Not so long ago, automated facial recognition was a dystopian technology that most people associated only with science fiction novels or movies such as “Minority Report.” Engineers first sought to make it a reality in the 1960s, attempting to program an early computer to match someone’s portrait to a larger database of people’s faces. In the early 2000s, police began experimenting with it to search mug shot databases for the faces of unknown criminal suspects. But the technology had largely proved disappointing. Its performance varied across race, gender, and age, and even state-of-the-art algorithms struggled to do something as simple as matching a mug shot to a grainy ATM surveillance still.Clearview claimed to be different, touting a “98.6% accuracy rate” and an enormous collection of photos unlike anything the police had used before.This is huge if true, I thought, as I read and reread the Clearview memo that had never been meant to be public. I had been covering privacy, and its steady erosion, for more than a decade. I often describe my beat as “the looming tech dystopia — and how we can try to avoid it,” but I’d never seen such an audacious attack on anonymity before.Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowGet the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Privacy, a word that is notoriously hard to define, was most famously described in a Harvard Law Review article in 1890 as “the right to be let alone.” The two lawyers who authored the article, Samuel D. Warren, Jr. and Louis D. Brandeis, called for the right to privacy to be protected by law, along with those other rights — to life, liberty, and private property — that had already been enshrined. They were inspired by a then-novel technology — the portable Eastman Kodak film camera, invented in 1888, which made it possible to take a camera outside a studio for “instant” photos of daily life — as well as by people like me, a meddlesome member of the press.”Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life,” wrote Warren and Brandeis, “and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that ‘what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops.'”Related: Humanity faces a ‘catastrophic’ future if we don’t regulate AI, ‘Godfather of AI’ Yoshua Bengio saysThis article is among the most famous legal essays ever written, and Louis Brandeis went on to join the Supreme Court. Yet privacy never got the kind of protection Warren and Brandeis said that it deserved. More than a century later, there is still no overarching law guaranteeing Americans control over what photos are taken of them, what is written about them, or what is done with their personal data. Meanwhile, companies based in the United States — and other countries with weak privacy laws — are creating ever more powerful and invasive technologies.Facial recognition had been on my radar for a while. Throughout my career, at places such as Forbes and Gizmodo, I had covered major new offerings from billion-dollar companies: Facebook automatically tagging your friends in photos; Apple and Google letting people look at their phones to unlock them; digital billboards from Microsoft and Intel with cameras that detected age and gender to show passers-by appropriate ads.Concerns over facial recognition technology has been building for decades. (Image credit: vasare/Getty Images)I had written about the way this sometimes clunky and error-prone technology excited law enforcement and industry but terrified privacy-conscious citizens. As I digested what Clearview claimed it could do, I thought back to a federal workshop I’d attended years earlier in Washington, D.C., where industry representatives, government officials, and privacy advocates had sat down to hammer out the rules of the road.The one thing they all agreed on was that no one should roll out an application to identify strangers. It was too dangerous, they said. A weirdo at a bar could snap your photo and within seconds know who your friends were and where you lived. It could be used to identify anti-government protesters or women who walked into Planned Parenthood clinics. It would be a weapon for harassment and intimidation. Accurate facial recognition, on the scale of hundreds of millions or billions of people, was the third rail of the technology. And now Clearview, an unknown player in the field, claimed to have built it.I was skeptical. Startups are notorious for making grandiose claims that turn out to be snake oil. Even Steve Jobs famously faked the capabilities of the original iPhone when he first revealed it onstage in 2007.*We tend to believe that computers have almost magical powers, that they can figure out the solution to any problem and, with enough data, eventually solve it better than humans can. So investors, customers, and the public can be tricked by outrageous claims and some digital sleight of hand by companies that aspire to do something great but aren’t quite there yet.But in this confidential legal memo, Clearview’s high-profile lawyer, Paul Clement, who had been the solicitor general of the United States under President George W. Bush, claimed to have tried out the product with attorneys at his firm and “found that it returns fast and accurate search results.”Clement wrote that more than 200 law enforcement agencies were already using the tool and that he’d determined that they “do not violate the federal Constitution or relevant existing state biometric and privacy laws when using Clearview for its intended purpose.” Not only were hundreds of police departments using this tech in secret, but the company had hired a fancy lawyer to reassure officers that they weren’t committing a crime by doing so.I returned to New York with an impending birth as a deadline. I had three months to get to the bottom of this story, and the deeper I dug, the stranger it got…Concerns about facial recognition had been building for decades. And now the nebulous bogeyman had finally found its form: a small company with mysterious founders and an unfathomably large database. And none of the millions of people who made up that database had given their consent. Clearview AI represents our worst fears, but it also offers, at long last, the opportunity to confront them.*Steve Jobs pulled a fast one, hiding the prototype iPhone’s memory problems and frequent crashes by having his engineers spend countless hours on finding a “golden path”—a specific sequence of tasks the phone could do without glitching.Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy by Kashmir Hill has been shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, which celebrates the best popular science writing from across the globe. $13.81 at Amazon USNew York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill was skeptical when she got a tip about a mysterious app called Clearview AI that claimed it could, with 99 percent accuracy, identify anyone based on just one snapshot of their face. The app could supposedly scan a face and, in just seconds, surface every detail of a person’s online life: their name, social media profiles, friends and family members, home address, and photos that they might not have even known existed. If it was everything it claimed to be, it would be the ultimate surveillance tool, and it would open the door to everything from stalking to totalitarian state control. Could it be true? View Deal

One Win: Parasite Actor Song Kang Ho to Portray Volleyball Coach in Upcoming Sports Drama Film

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Song Kang Ho will appear as a volleyball coach in the upcoming film One Win. The actor is known for his performance in various K-movies, like The Attorney, A Taxi Driver, and Parasite. Kang Ho will portray Kim Woo Jin, a volleyball coach known in the field for his failures. The film follows the coach as he showcases his relatable personality and charm.The movie revolves around a professional volleyball team of women. It shows the challenges the team members and their coach as they decide to change their fate once. The team that never tasted a win and a coach who is least interested in winning a game team up for just one win. A coach who has never tasted victory works with a team that has no idea about how to succeed in the game.The production team recently revealed a poster announcing the release month of this K-movie. It shows a bouncing volleyball and a smiling Woo Jin in front of a One Win Korean title. The poster also depicts the vibrant energy of players on the volleyball court as they compete to win just once. The film will hit the big screens in December.

A new ‘race science’ network is linked to a history of eugenics that never fully left academia

Science and Health

The Guardian and anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate have revealed the existence of a new network of far-right intellectuals and activists in an undercover investigation. Called the Human Diversity Foundation (HDF), this group advocates scientific racism and eugenics. Although it presents itself as having a scientific purpose, some of its figureheads have political ambitions in Germany and elsewhere.

Research shows these kinds of groups are nothing new and are linked to eugenics groups that have been active since the second world war. Defending the scientific legitimacy of eugenics, these organisations worked to keep a discredited intellectual tradition alive.

Although it has been debunked by decades of research evidence, eugenics once enjoyed a reputation as a credible science since it emerged in the late 19th century.

First coined by Francis Galton, a prominent Victorian statistician and evolutionary theorist, the term eugenics refers to the study of what Galton considered favourable and unfavourable genetic patterns within the population. Galton believed that the principles of evolutionary theory could be applied to the human species and used to intervene in its genetic fitness.

Sir Francis Galton was a proponent of social Darwinism, eugenics and scientific racism.
Portrait by Charles Furse/Alamy stock photo

Galton and other early eugenicists advocated policies that would ensure that groups they believed held “desirable” traits, such as high intelligence, creative ability, or productivity, could reproduce in greater numbers than groups with less favourable genetics. Some even believed that “undesirable” groups should be prevented from reproducing, through forced sterilisation or abortion.

Ruling elites used eugenics to justify brutal treatment of disabled people, ethnic minorities, colonial populations, and LGBTQ+ people.

In the 1930s these ideas came to form the bedrock of Nazi race doctrine. Eugenics was a key component of Nazism and shaped both formal fascist ideology and how the Nazi regime treated its victims.

Before the second world war, many researchers regarded eugenics as a legitimate science. But in the aftermath of the war came a shift in attitudes, and scientists and society came to view eugenics as scientifically false and morally objectionable.

Instead of disappearing from academia, however, eugenics merely retreated into the
margins. Racial research became the focus of a handful of groups intent on keeping
the eugenics tradition alive.

Though they operated on the fringes of academia, these groups received financial support from private donors. The most prominent of these donors was the Pioneer Fund, a charity established in 1937 to support race science and white supremacy in the US and elsewhere.

These groups were close-knit. United by a shared sense of exclusion from the
academic mainstream, the people involved were prolific writers and together
generated a large body of work. They inflated their own citation counts by frequently referencing each other’s work and, in this way, established the impression of scientific rigour.

Pseudoscientific journals

Seeking to salvage the reputation of eugenics as a legitimate science, these groups
tended to cluster around journals and periodicals.

Chief among these was Mankind Quarterly, established in 1961 by a group called the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE). Some decades later ownership of the journal was transferred to the Ulster Institute for Social Research, a eugenicist think tank founded and directed by Richard Lynn. Lynn is widely considered the intellectual figurehead of 21st-century eugenics.

The Mankind Quarterly quickly became known as a bastion of scientific racism. It published work by notorious pseudoscientists, neo-fascists, and such controversial political figures as former British MP Enoch Powell, remembered for appealing to racial hatred in his speeches.

Other similar journals emerged in the following decades. In France, Nouvelle École (“New School”) was established in 1967 by a white nationalist group. In Germany, Neue Anthropologie (“New Anthropology”) was first published in 1973.

These publications were part of the same networks. Their editors received funding from the same sources, including the Pioneer Fund, they published translations of each other’s articles, and their editorial boards overlapped.

Eugenics today

Reported to have developed out of the Pioneer Fund and to have taken ownership of Mankind Quarterly, the HDF is the successor to earlier groups like the IAAEE and the Ulster Institute.

Today, the eugenics movement is experiencing a period of uncertainty following the
death of Richard Lynn in July 2023. When he died, Lynn was the director of the Pioneer Fund and the editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly. Organisations like HDF, led by people who have worked closely with Lynn, are trying to fill that void.

Whether the HDF will survive public scrutiny remains to be seen. But the broader networks from which it emerged are arguably stronger than at any previous moment in post-war history, facilitated by the rise of the far right and online extremism. All of which means it has never been more important to remember the tradition’s history.

Interview: Brand USA chief executive Fred Dixon

Technology

The new boss of America’s destination marketing organisation tells Robin Searle why he is optimistic for future growthThree months into his new role, Brand USA chief executive Fred Dixon strikes a confident tone about prospects for boosting inbound travel to the States.The former head of NYC Tourism + Conventions took over from Chris Thompson in July this year and has already made a raft of new appointments, including new industry relations, communications and product development chiefs.Another notable appointment is ex-NYC colleague Janette Roush, who joins as senior vice-president for innovation and will also be Brand USA’s chief AI officer – reflecting Dixon’s focus on technological developments.Speaking ahead of Brand USA’s UK & Europe Travel Week in London, he says: “AI is an area that I’m really excited to explore and we’ll be expanding on that during Travel Week.[The technology] is being embraced broadly, but we need to look at how we are using it to advance travel, to advance partnerships and to advance our work and messaging directly to consumers.”Dixon describes his first quarter with the national marketing organisation as “incredibly exciting”, having held “exhilarating” individual meetings with around half his staff so far and engaging with key partners to get their input on its future direction.He explains: “I’ve been partnering with Brand USA since the beginning, so it feels like very familiar territory for me. New York was one of the most active destinations when Brand USA got on its feet in 2010 and 2011, so we’ve been closely aligned from the get-go.”One of the key items for Dixon will be the reauthorisation of Brand USA beyond 2027.But in the short-term his priorities are on continuing to overcome potential barriers to inbound growth and ensure travellers explore beyond established gateway cities.Asked whether noise around the forthcoming presidential election is having any impact on desire to visit, Dixon is relaxed, pointing instead to factors such as exchange rates and time pressures.He also notes that visitor numbers have continued to rise in recent years – pandemic aside – regardless of who is in the White House.“Looking at research into the levers that influence travel decisions, we see politics well down the scale,” he explains.“The first question is ‘do I have the discretionary income to travel?’ and the second is ‘do I have the time?’. The politics of a particular nation or a particular party or leadership comes way further down the list.”Strong demandDixon hails the response to this year’s Travel Week event as a reflection of strong demand from the UK and other European markets, with encouraging currency trends also giving reason for cheer.The 2024 edition will see more than 70 destination chief executives and more than 220 exhibitors meet with more than 180 UK and European buyers as well as media, which Dixon says is a sign not just of momentum, but also the importance of the trade to US growth.Looking at the UK market specifically, he is confident a projected full recovery to pre-pandemic numbers is on track for next year, with air capacity continuing to grow.“We have forecast 2024 numbers to be at 4.3 million against 4.8 in 2019 and year-to-date arrivals are up over last year, so it is trending in the right direction,” he says.“There are 122 air routes to the UK and Ireland and increasing numbers of regional hubs, so with the recent upturn in the pound also playing a role I think full recovery looks on track for next year.”Key to marketing plans over the coming years will be a focus on major events being hosted in the US, with the next 10 years being dubbed “the decade of events”.“We’re going to be focusing on product development, working with the trade and building out new itineraries, and we’re going to have some great hooks for that, whether it’s the 100th anniversary of Route 66 next year or sporting events including the Fifa World Cup and Olympic Games,” Dixon says.As he approaches his first major overseas event since taking on his new role, he is also crystal clear about the need to ensure the US continues to remain front of mind for trade and consumers alike.“We know we have the appeal in terms of the product, no matter what travellers are looking for,” he insists.“The news can be heavy at times so we need to make sure we’re constantly pushing all the positive stories we’ve got to tell.”Brand USA Travel Week UK & Europe takes place in London from October 21-24.

Interview: Brand USA chief executive Fred Dixon

Technology

The new boss of America’s destination marketing organisation tells Robin Searle why he is optimistic for future growthThree months into his new role, Brand USA chief executive Fred Dixon strikes a confident tone about prospects for boosting inbound travel to the States.The former head of NYC Tourism + Conventions took over from Chris Thompson in July this year and has already made a raft of new appointments, including new industry relations, communications and product development chiefs.Another notable appointment is ex-NYC colleague Janette Roush, who joins as senior vice-president for innovation and will also be Brand USA’s chief AI officer – reflecting Dixon’s focus on technological developments.Speaking ahead of Brand USA’s UK & Europe Travel Week in London, he says: “AI is an area that I’m really excited to explore and we’ll be expanding on that during Travel Week.[The technology] is being embraced broadly, but we need to look at how we are using it to advance travel, to advance partnerships and to advance our work and messaging directly to consumers.”Dixon describes his first quarter with the national marketing organisation as “incredibly exciting”, having held “exhilarating” individual meetings with around half his staff so far and engaging with key partners to get their input on its future direction.He explains: “I’ve been partnering with Brand USA since the beginning, so it feels like very familiar territory for me. New York was one of the most active destinations when Brand USA got on its feet in 2010 and 2011, so we’ve been closely aligned from the get-go.”One of the key items for Dixon will be the reauthorisation of Brand USA beyond 2027.But in the short-term his priorities are on continuing to overcome potential barriers to inbound growth and ensure travellers explore beyond established gateway cities.Asked whether noise around the forthcoming presidential election is having any impact on desire to visit, Dixon is relaxed, pointing instead to factors such as exchange rates and time pressures.He also notes that visitor numbers have continued to rise in recent years – pandemic aside – regardless of who is in the White House.“Looking at research into the levers that influence travel decisions, we see politics well down the scale,” he explains.“The first question is ‘do I have the discretionary income to travel?’ and the second is ‘do I have the time?’. The politics of a particular nation or a particular party or leadership comes way further down the list.”Strong demandDixon hails the response to this year’s Travel Week event as a reflection of strong demand from the UK and other European markets, with encouraging currency trends also giving reason for cheer.The 2024 edition will see more than 70 destination chief executives and more than 220 exhibitors meet with more than 180 UK and European buyers as well as media, which Dixon says is a sign not just of momentum, but also the importance of the trade to US growth.Looking at the UK market specifically, he is confident a projected full recovery to pre-pandemic numbers is on track for next year, with air capacity continuing to grow.“We have forecast 2024 numbers to be at 4.3 million against 4.8 in 2019 and year-to-date arrivals are up over last year, so it is trending in the right direction,” he says.“There are 122 air routes to the UK and Ireland and increasing numbers of regional hubs, so with the recent upturn in the pound also playing a role I think full recovery looks on track for next year.”Key to marketing plans over the coming years will be a focus on major events being hosted in the US, with the next 10 years being dubbed “the decade of events”.“We’re going to be focusing on product development, working with the trade and building out new itineraries, and we’re going to have some great hooks for that, whether it’s the 100th anniversary of Route 66 next year or sporting events including the Fifa World Cup and Olympic Games,” Dixon says.As he approaches his first major overseas event since taking on his new role, he is also crystal clear about the need to ensure the US continues to remain front of mind for trade and consumers alike.“We know we have the appeal in terms of the product, no matter what travellers are looking for,” he insists.“The news can be heavy at times so we need to make sure we’re constantly pushing all the positive stories we’ve got to tell.”Brand USA Travel Week UK & Europe takes place in London from October 21-24.

Janice Allen | Tourism through my eyes

Travel

Tourism in Jamaica has long been a shining beacon, bringing in billions of dollars annually, creating jobs, and contributing significantly to the national GDP. However, as the world and our nation evolve, so too must our approach to tourism. The realities of tourism today reveal both opportunities and challenges, making it essential that we strategically reimagine Jamaica’s tourism landscape to build a resilient and inclusive industry that goes beyond our beaches and resorts.
CURRENT LANDSCAPE
As of 2023, tourism contributed over 20 per cent of Jamaica’s GDP, with an estimated 4.3 million visitors each year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Jamaica has continued to attract international travellers drawn to its picturesque beaches, rich cultural heritage, and vibrant music scene. But beneath this façade lies a deeper story, one of unrealised potential, social disparities, and an urgent need for diversification.
Tourism has long been concentrated in traditional areas like Montego Bay, Negril, and Ocho Rios, yet these regions cannot bear the entire weight of Jamaica’s tourism product. Too often, tourism development has been characterised by large, all-inclusive resorts that, while profitable, can sometimes strain local resources and fail to deeply enrich the communities around them. As such, the time has come for a renewed focus to broaden the tourism offering especially in community tourism, local experiences, and an authentic showcasing of our island’s hidden gems. It is also imperative that we begin to determine the ratio of all-inclusive to non-all-inclusive (EP) accommodation offering. There is great need for emphasis to be placed on deliberately attracting investments in the EP model which suits business travel and some leisure travel, thereby creating a demand for restaurants, transportation and entertainment outside of the hotel, which in turn directly fuelling the local economies.
COMMUNITY AND LOCAL TOURISM
Community tourism is the key to both sustainability and empowerment. Local tourism initiatives, which involve smaller, community-based businesses, can empower residents by providing meaningful employment and fostering entrepreneurship. Areas like Treasure Beach on the south coast have already begun to demonstrate the power of this approach. Visitors who opt for community-based experiences not only enrich their understanding of Jamaica, but also contribute directly to local economies, ensuring that tourism’s benefits are more evenly distributed.
Jamaica’s inner-city communities, often stereotyped as merely “garrisons”, hold a wealth of cultural, artistic, and historical value that has long been overlooked. Take for example, Trench Town in Kingston, the birthplace of reggae. While it attracts niche visitors, it has not yet reached its full potential as a major attraction. By strategically incorporating areas like these into our tourism product, we not only diversify our offerings, but also help to break down socio-economic barriers. In doing so, we tell a more comprehensive story of Jamaica, one that celebrates our resilience, creativity, and unbreakable spirit.
REVITALISING MONTEGO BAY
Montego Bay, as Jamaica’s tourism capital, needs more than just beaches and all-inclusive resorts. The city’s rapid urbanisation has created pockets of under-utilised spaces that can be transformed into vibrant cultural and recreational hubs. Imagine a world-class cultural centre that highlights our music, dance, and cuisine. These attractions would not only appeal to tourists, but also benefit residents, creating spaces that foster local pride and unity.
Further, with the rise of eco-conscious travellers, Montego Bay has the potential to become a hub for sustainable tourism. Local initiatives, such as coral reef restoration and community-led beach clean-ups, can become part of a broader commitment to environmental stewardship. By investing in these kinds of projects, we not only enhance our tourism product but also protect the natural resources that are integral to our island’s appeal.
Montego Bay is the largest and fastest growth corridor in Jamaica and with this comes the demand for a variety of accommodation offerings. A city like this should by now be home to major business hotel brands, luxury EP brands in addition to lower end EP brands, all to satisfy the needs of the evolving and varied traveller. With our tourism industry in its mature stage we must now begin to focus on attracting brands like Marriott, Sheraton, Six Senses and Banyan Tree, among others. This must be the focus of the revitalised Montego Bay tourism product rather than the overreliance on the mass market segment with larger and larger all-inclusives. Incentivising investments in EP accommodation development should be a major consideration for the government so that a better balance can be struck.
INVESTING IN JAMAICA’S RESILIENCE
A sustainable tourism sector requires more than short-term gains; it demands a medium to long-term plan. For Jamaica, this means investing in climate resilience, infrastructure, and technology. According to the Caribbean Development Bank, up to 70 per cent of our tourism infrastructure is located in vulnerable coastal areas. As climate change accelerates, so does the urgency for a resilient strategy.
The government must prioritise and incentivise investments in renewable energy, disaster-resilient infrastructure, and sustainable waste management. Imagine a future where every hotel is powered by solar energy, where our rivers are free from pollution, and where our communities can thrive without the constant threat of environmental degradation. This is the Jamaica we must build together.
CALL TO ACTION
The government, private-sector partners, and every Jamaican to come together to build a tourist industry that reflects our values, celebrates our culture, and empowers our communities. We must support initiatives that promote local tourism, expand the economic activity of indigenous Jamaican businesses, reimagine areas like Montego Bay and invest in our island’s resilience.
Tourism is more than an economic driver; it is a powerful vehicle for change. Let us seize this moment to shape a tourist industry that is inclusive, sustainable, and authentically Jamaican.

Janice Allen is a senator and shadow minister, tourism and linkages. Send feedback to [email protected]