Main content

The great face hack

Tech start-up Clearview scraped billions of people's photos off social media and sold their facial recognition service to police forces, private security firms and banks.

Tech start-up Clearview scraped billions of people's public photos off social media, and then sold their facial recognition service to police forces, private security firms and banks around the world.

Were the company's actions an invasion of privacy? Were they even illegal? Is their technology as reliable as they claim? Or could it have resulted in multiple false arrests of misidentified suspects?

Manuela Saragosa explores the thorny questions raised by the latest data privacy scandal. She speaks to Buzzfeed technology reporter Caroline Haskins, private investigator and former NYPD detective Mark Pucci, and Georgetown University privacy and technology researcher Clare Garvie.

Producer: Edwin Lane

(Picture: Polygon facial recognition mesh on woman's face; Credit: Erikona/Getty Images)

Available now

18 minutes

Last on

Fri 6 Mar 2020 13:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 6 Mar 2020 08:32GMT
  • Fri 6 Mar 2020 13:32GMT

Podcast