Clearview has shrouded itself in secrecy, avoiding debate about its boundary-pushing technology. When I began looking into the company in November, its website was a bare page showing a nonexistent Manhattan address as its place of business. The company’s one employee listed on LinkedIn, a sales manager named “John Good,” turned out to be Mr. Ton-That, using a fake name. For a month, people affiliated with the company would not return my emails or phone calls.
While the company was dodging me, it was also monitoring me. At my request, a number of police officers had run my photo through the Clearview app. They soon received phone calls from company representatives asking if they were talking to the media — a sign that Clearview has the ability and, in this case, the appetite to monitor whom law enforcement is searching for.
cool very cool wow
I'm ready to shove this guy into an industrial crusher
I just want to point out, that first quote? About how there’s too much information moving around with modern technology to ensure people’s privacy? That’s true. There will always be scammers, surveillance, tracking, targeted ads, botnets, etc. as long as the tech still works and people are incentivized to do it
The only solution is to remove the profit motive that makes exploiting other people worthwhile. Redistributing wealth won’t fix it. UBI won’t fix it. God knows we’ve tried to regulate this shit, but even though a lot of it is illegal already it’s still happening all the time. Nevermind that companies like google, amazon, and facebook are very much motivated to lobby against any attempts at privacy regulations
The only solution to these problems (and many more! junk mail, for instance) is to stop letting people profit off of our exploitation. We need a radical change in our economic system. Otherwise, I hope you’re happy with never answering unfamiliar phone numbers again