Technology is a double-edged sword, case in point: ClearView AI. This is a startup company that could compare a photo to a database of over 3 billion pictures and depending on how it’s used, it could be both advantageous and also dangerous.
With the Clearview app, you can take a photo of a stranger and get information about that person without him/her ever knowing your existence. Clearview uses the photo to match photos it obtained from large social media sites like Venmo, Facebook, YouTube and more. Once there are matches, it’ll serve up links to the sites so you’ll be able to check out whatever information that is revealed on those sites.
The database of Clearview currently exceeds those involved in law enforcement, including the FBI’s database that has over 641 million images of US citizens. Law enforcers have already made use of Clearview to assist in crimes — even though there may be false matches sometimes.
The good news is the app is not available to the public, but Clearview investors said that it’s possible in the future. This is risky because it’ll also aid stalkers and creeps in targeting someone, but there should be precautionary steps if Clearview does become public.
