NASA Bought Facial Recognition Tech Clearview AI
The oversight body of NASA bought access to the powerful facial recognition tool, according to U.S. government procurement data.
NASA bought access to Clearview AI, a powerful and controversial surveillance tool that uses billions of images scraped from social media to perform facial recognition, according to U.S. government procurement data reviewed by 404 Media.
The news shows that Clearview AI is spreading beyond federal law enforcement agencies and into other parts of the U.S. government. It also raises questions about what exactly NASA is using the tool for. The part of NASA that will use the Clearview AI license is its oversight body, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has special agents who sometimes carry concealed firearms, perform undercover operations, and develop cases for criminal or civil prosecution.
“Clearview AI license,” the procurement record reads. The contract was for $16,000 and was signed in August, it adds.
Clearview AI is a facial recognition company that can take a photo of the face of the target, and run it against the company’s database of around 30 billion faces. Clearview AI obtained many of these images by scraping the web, including sites and services like Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo. When the New York Times first reported on Clearview in January 2020, a researcher who provided documents to the Times said Clearview “appears to be crossing the Rubicon on facial recognition technology.” Often the tool is used in the form of an app installed on customers’ phones.
