> That’s because Facebook and other social media sites prohibit people from scraping users’ images — Clearview is violating the sites’ terms of service. “A lot of people are doing it,” Mr. Ton-That shrugged. “Facebook knows.”
The last kind of person on Earth I want making an app like this is someone that doesn't care about terms of service, morality, contracts, or upholding the law. It seems like he just got into it for the money, and has no compunction about unethical behaviour. "Everybody's doing it" is a cliche, and idiotic, response. Don't take any wooden nickels when you sell your soul...
> Police officers and Clearview’s investors predict that its app will eventually be available to the public.
Mr. Ton-That said he was reluctant. “There’s always going to be a community of bad people who will misuse it,” he said.
(...)
> Asked about the implications of bringing such a power into the world, Mr. Ton-That seemed taken aback.
“I have to think about that,” he said. “Our belief is that this is the best use of the technology.”
And then read this:
> Because the police upload photos of people they’re trying to identify, Clearview possesses a growing database of individuals who have attracted attention from law enforcement. The company also has the ability to manipulate the results that the police see. After the company realized I was asking officers to run my photo through the app, my face was flagged by Clearview’s systems and for a while showed no matches. When asked about this, Mr. Ton-That laughed and called it a “software bug.”
Facebook is alredy all of those things though, and nobody pushed back. Thats the root of the problem. Too many smart but socially myopic jerks decided their SV projects funding was more important than human decency. YC is part and parcel of that way of thinking unfortunately.
i’m hoping this story prompts his company getting sued into oblivion. if i were running twitter or fb and suddenly there’s a strong incentive not to post personal photos i’d be rightly alarmed.
The last kind of person on Earth I want making an app like this is someone that doesn't care about terms of service, morality, contracts, or upholding the law. It seems like he just got into it for the money, and has no compunction about unethical behaviour. "Everybody's doing it" is a cliche, and idiotic, response. Don't take any wooden nickels when you sell your soul...