Clearview Doubles Biometric Database With Clearview 2.0

Clearview AI has launched the latest version of its controversial facial recognition platform. The enhanced platform comes with improved image enhancement tools, as well as better reporting features that ostensibly give administrators more oversight over the use of the platform.

Clearview 2.0 also doubles the size of the company’s massive image database. The company was boasting that its database contained 10 billion images in February of this year, but is now claiming that law enforcement officers will have access to 20 billion images with the second generation of its platform. That suggests that the company’s database is expanding at an unprecedented rate, despite numerous cease-and-desist orders and despite the fact that several countries have ruled that the company’s data collection practices are unlawful.

At the moment, Clearview is marketing its platform exclusively to law enforcement and government agencies, though it has hinted that it wants to return to the private sector at some point in the future. The company’s client roster currently includes more than 3,100 agencies at the federal and local levels. The new version of the Clearview platform is already being rolled out for those existing clients, with additional training to make sure that the individual agents with access to the platform are following the proper verification and reporting procedures.

On the technology front, the new image enhancement tool will allow investigators to generate matches with low-resolution images, and with images captured in poor lighting conditions. They will also be able to find matches when a face is partially obscured. Clearview described Clearview 2.0 as “the most significant upgrade since the release of its initial platform.”

Clearview’s recent investor pitch deck indicates that the company is planning to have 100 billion images in its database before the end of the year. The company’s facial recognition algorithm has performed well in NIST testing, though the company was recently hit with a €20 million fine for violating Italy’s data privacy laws.

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March 25, 2022 – by Eric Weiss