In a recent MIT Technology article, Senior Reporter Eileen Guo reported that the US Department of Homeland Security is planning to collect and analyze photos of the faces of migrant children, at the southern US border. Apparently the DHS was able to eliminate age restrictions on the collection of biometric data, inclusive of children “down to the infant.” This is part of a broader initiative being undertaking by the DHS to evolve their biometric identity capabilities. Beyond concerns for privacy and security, significant limitations include small training data sets that are low quantity.
These developments make Kashmir Hill's new book Your Face Belongs to Us even more timely. Kashmir — named for the Led Zeppelin song per her Twitter bio — is a technology reporter for the New York Times where her focus has genre-pioneering beat has been privacy and technology. Your Face Belongs to Us tells the story of Clearview AI, an AI startup that provides facial recognition to global corporations and law enforcement agencies.
What if you could recognize faces based on a database of billions of people from around the world? It turns out there is an app for that, and it was developed by Richard Schwartz — in his previous life was an advisor to Rudolph Giuliani — and a software engineer by the name of Ton-That. Clearview AI claims to provide names, social media profiles, friends and family members, home addresses, and photos based on a facial scan. Kashmir Hill sets out to find out if this technology is really 99 percent accurate per Clearview AI's marketing, or just the usual big tech hype. As it turns out, these claims are accurate and the social implications are chilling. So much so that execs at Facebook and Google considered releasing similar technology, but ultimately opted not to release due to the potential for total authoritarian surveillance.
Your Face Belongs to US tells the true story of how a small startup company seemingly overnight became a powerful player in the military industrial complex. The book also explores the implications for the privacy and security of United States, and looks at similar policies that have been rolled out in Russia and China.
Acclaimed as A Best Book of the Year by Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Wired and winner of the Inc. Magazine's Non-Obvious Book Award, Kashmir's work describes the dystopian future that awaits us if the implementation of facial technology is left unchecked by US government regulators. Your Face Belongs to US is available for purchase here on Subatomik.
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References:
Kashmir Hill's website: https://www.kashmirhill.com/
The US wants to scan the faces of migrant kids at the border,
by Eileen Guo. Publication: MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/08/14/1096534/homeland-security-facial-recognition-immigration-border/
Your Face Belongs to Us, book summary. Publisher: Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com