Clearview AI Scraped Billions of Facebook Photos for Facial Recognition Database

Facial recognition firm Clearview has built a massive AI-powered database of billions of pictures collected from social media platforms without obtaining users’ consent.

In late March, Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That told BBC in an interview that the company had obtained 30 billion photos without users’ knowledge over the years, scraped mainly from social media platforms like Facebook. He said US law enforcement agencies use the database to identify criminals.

Ton-That disputed claims that the photos were unlawfully collected. He told Business Insider in an emailed statement, “Clearview AI’s database of publicly available images is lawfully collected, just like any other search engine like Google.”

However, privacy advocates and social media companies have been highly critical of Clearview AI.

“Clearview AI’s actions invade people’s privacy which is why we banned their founder from our services and sent them a legal demand to stop accessing any data, photos, or videos from our services,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email to Insider. 

Ton-That told Insider the database is not publicly available and is only used by law enforcement. He said the software had been used more than a million times by police.

“Clearview AI’s database is used for after-the-crime investigations by law enforcement, and is not available to the general public. Every photo in the dataset is a potential clue that could save a life, provide justice to an innocent victim, prevent a wrongful identification, or exonerate an innocent person.”

According to critics, using Clearview AI by the police subjects everyone to a “continuous police line-up.”

“Whenever they have a photo of a suspect, they will compare it to your face,” Matthew Guariglia from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told BBC. He said, “It’s far too invasive.”

The AI-driven database has raised privacy concerns in the US to the point where Sens. Jeff Merkley and Bernie Sanders attempted to block its use with a bill requiring Clearview and similar companies to obtain consent before scraping biometric data.

In 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union sued Clearview AI, calling it a ‘nightmare scenario’ for privacy. The ACLU managed to ban Clearview AI’s products from being sold to private companies but not the police.

Clearview AI is a massive problem for civil liberties. The easiest way to prevent Clearview AI from scraping photos from your social media accounts is to not be on social media. Alternatively, if you wish to maintain a social media presence, ensure that the images you post are not publicly accessible on the web.

April 9

1682 – Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims the area for France and names it Louisiana in honor of King Louis IV

1768 – When customs agents board to search John Hancock’s ship Lydia in Boston Harbor since he had a reputation for smuggling, he has them forced off since they did not have a warrant for the search. By many, this is considered the first act of actual resistance to British authority in the colonies and initiating the Revolution.

1784 – The Treaty of Paris, ratified by Congress on January 14, is ratified by King George III of Great Britain, ending the American Revolutionary War.

1865 – Meeting with General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia.

1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act, raising certain tariffs on goods entering the country.

1942 – Meeting with General Kameichiro Nagano, General Edward P. King surrenders the U.S and Filipino forces on the Bataan peninsula.

1945 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.

1947 – The Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornado outbreak kills 181 people and injures 970 more across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

1948 –Riots break out when socialist presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán is assassinated in Bogotá, Columbia.

1959 – NASA announces the selection of the first 7 astronauts for project Mercury.

1967 – The first Boeing 737 makes its maiden flight.

1969 – The first British built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.

1981 – About 110 nautical miles southwest of Sasebo, Japan, in the East China Sea, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it and killing 2 Japanese sailors.

1990 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2254, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, enroute from Gadsden, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, collides in midair with a Cessna 172 over Gadsden, Alabama, killing both of the Cessna’s occupants with the Embraer returning safely to Gadsden.

1992 – Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is found guilty in U.S. federal court of drug and racketeering charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

2014 – A student  at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania knifes 20 other students and a security guard before being subdued by an assistant principal, aided by another student.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Signals Regime Split

Has the ongoing insurrection in Iran, now into its seventh month, exposed glaring splits in the theocratic regime? In his Nowruz (Persian New Year) address to the nation, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the elderly and increasingly delusional Supreme Leader, insisted that the main priority of the theocratic regime was to fight inflation.

Unveiling his concept of ‘The Year of Curbing Inflation,’ he indirectly acknowledged that his country is bankrupt, but failed to offer any way of resolving the perilous state of the Iranian economy. His mumbled remarks may have disappointed his hard-line followers, who prefer to hear pledges to “wipe Israel off the map” or cries of “death to America,” and have little appetite for economic reforms. But splits and divisions amongst the mullahs are now the trademarks of this failing fascist regime.

The Iranian economy is in plummeting decline. Spiralling inflation, currently at 43.4 percent, and a collapsing currency, have combined with tough western sanctions to bring the country to a virtual standstill.  Food prices in particular have suffered massive spikes over the past year, including a 125 percent increase for meat, 250 percent for onions, 82 percent for eggs, and 78 percent for rice.The active Iranian workforce is 26 million, of whom at least 10 million were jobless even before the Covid pandemic. Youth unemployment is at a staggering 40 percent. At least 60% of the population are living in poverty, unable to meet their essential daily needs.

Combined with the mullah’s own venal corruption and regional warmongering, it is little wonder that the country with the world’s second largest gas reserves and fourth largest crude oil reserves is now facing economic meltdown. Iran, despite its once rich, civilized and open culture, has become an international pariah, its religious fascist regime condemned for human rights abuse and the export of terror, while its 85 million beleaguered citizens struggle to feed their families.

Now, the nationwide protests which began last September, have spread from the main cities to rural towns and villages, uniting the impoverished working classes with hard-up middle-income earners, whose chants of “death to the dictator” and “death to Khamenei,” clearly signify the burgeoning demand for regime change. Facing the imminent demise of his dictatorship, Khamenei has clearly panicked, even denying in his Nowruz address that Iran was siding with Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war, calling the claim “an utter lie,” despite the export of thousands of Iranian Kamikaze drones to Russia.

Continue reading “”

Do ‘More Guns Lead To More Deaths’?
No, and that good news needs to be front and center in all discussions of gun control, especially after school shootings

April 8

1271 – Using a forged letter purportedly from their Grand Master, Sultan Al-Malik Baibars of Egypt fools the crusader Knights Hospitallers at the Krak des Chevaliers fortress castle in Syria into surrendering after a short siege.

1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.

1820 – The Venus de Milo statue is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.

1832 –  The U.S. 6th Infantry regiment is deploy into Illinois from St. Louis, Missouri to engage the Sauk tribe led by Chief Black Hawk who invaded from indian territory in Iowa.

1865 – At Appomattox Station, Virginia, Union cavalry under General Custer seize critical supplies needed by Confederate troops, also blocking General Lee’s line of march to the west.
General Lee receives a reply from General Grant about surrender terms and replies that he wishes to meet Grant in the morning of the next day.

1895 – In the case of Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court rules unapportioned income tax imposed by the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894, to be unconstitutional. This ruling provided the impetus for the 16th amendment and the current income tax scheme.

1913 – The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, changing election of Senators by state legislatures to a direct popular vote, becomes law when the legislature of the state of Connecticut votes to ratify it.

1924 –Kemal Atatürk abolishes Sharia law courts in Turkey.

1943 – President Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.

1952 – President Truman ‘nationalizes’ all domestic steel mills several hours before steelworkers plan on going out on strike. The Supreme Court rules in the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that the seizure is unconstitutional and the steelworkers strike until late July.

1959 – The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank to provide financial services for central American and Caribbean nations.

1993 – The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56.

2005 – A solar eclipse occurs, visible over areas of the Pacific Ocean and Latin American countries of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

2013 – The Islamic State of Iraq enters the Syrian Civil War, merging with the Al-Nusra Front under the name Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham.

 

BLUF
It’s always problematic conducting polls about individual rights or personal freedoms. As a few of my colleagues pointed out, our gun rights are not subject to popular opinions, and popular rights do not need constitutional protections.

“The bottom line is this,” one said. “Had the residents of 1963 Alabama been polled regarding integration of Birmingham schools, the results would have shown overwhelming opposition. That’s why rights are independent of public opinion.”

Fake News: Debunking the media’s favorite constitutional-carry poll
Poll claims majority of Floridians oppose unlicensed concealed carry.

By Lee Williams

A few weeks before the Florida legislature began debating an unlicensed concealed-carry bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this week, the legacy media started pimping a new public opinion poll that made some incredibly bold claims on the topic.

The poll, which was conducted by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab, or PORL, alleged that a vast majority of Floridians rejected the very idea of unlicensed concealed carry. Only 22% of Floridians supported the legislation and 77% opposed the bill, PORL claimed.

“Not only is there bipartisan opposition to this ‘constitutional carry’ bill, but folks seem to feel passionately about it with the majority (67%) saying they strongly oppose the bill. Even among Republicans, most people are against carrying weapons without a permit,” Dr. Michael Binder, PORL faculty director and professor of political science, said in a March 9 press release announcing the poll.

As you can imagine, a feeding frenzy ensued. Armed with Binder’s poll numbers, the legacy media went absolutely nuts.

“As Floridians apparently know better than their elected officials, public health research overwhelmingly shows that relaxing firearm regulations contributes to increases in violent crime as well as firearm-related death and injury,” Caroline Light, who teached gender and ethnic studies at Harvard University, wrote in a column titled “Expect more violent crime if Florida passes permitless gun carry,” which was published by the Tampa Bay Times.

“Permitless carry bill closer to law despite new poll showing that it’s vastly unpopular in Florida,” wrote the Florida Phoenix.

The media onslaught didn’t stop even after Gov. DeSantis signed the bill into law.

Continue reading “”

No one believes this

Bower: No One Needs Guns Today Because We Have Police and the National Guard.

 

Republicans won’t vote for gun control legislation for three main reasons: They receive hefty campaign contributions from NRA and gun manufacturers. They’re afraid of being voted out of office by their gun-loving constituents. They honor Second Amendment rights above all other Constitutional rights.

…The Constitution was written at a time when there was no police force. There was no National Guard. It stands to reason citizens were given the right to keep and bear arms; if threatened, they were the militia. Today, if we need protection, we call the police. If government officials determine a crowd is getting too threatening, they send in the National Guard. They don’t call on individual citizens to come out and lend help with their guns.

Doing nothing about gun violence is unacceptable. There have been 130 mass shootings just since Jan. 1. The number one cause of death of American children and teens is gunshot wounds. Sixty-three percent of Americans want more gun controls. Republicans always fall back on the excuse that gun violence is a mental-health problem; which by the way, they don’t fund adequately. They call for more security to barricade children inside their school buildings. Republicans’ lamest excuse for inaction? “We’ve already done about all that can be done.” …

The idea that guns are carried openly on the streets in several red states is obscene. Iowa doesn’t even require a permit to open carry. I saw a photo recently of a guy with an AR-15 strapped across his back while standing in line to buy a can of pop at a convenience store.

This is just sick

— June Bower in Column: This Is a Republican Problem

This is about using illicit drugs vis-a-vis possessing guns.

Tennessee House Expels Two Democrats Who Led Floor Protest Against Guns.

Tennessee House Republicans made good on their threat to expel two of three Democrats who interrupted the legislative session after making their way to the front of the chamber and using a bullhorn to lead anti-gun chants with the gallery.

It was an unprecedented violation of House rules that Republicans say needed to be punished with the most severe penalty possible to discourage other members from following suit.

Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were ousted on a party-line vote while a third member, Rep. Gloria Johnson, survived her expulsion vote. Both Pearson and Jones are black while Johnson is white, allowing Democrats to claim that racism was the reason for the members being kicked out. Johnson wasn’t expelled because she wasn’t using a bullhorn when leading chants with the gallery.

Ironically, the two Democrats are likely to be back at work next week. Under Tennessee law, county commissioners will appoint temporary replacements until a special election can be held and are likely to be named. Both expelled legislators are eligible to run in the special election as well.

Associated Press:

Thousands of people flocked to the Capitol to support Jones, Pearson and Johnson on Thursday, cheering and chanting outside the House chamber loudly enough to drown out the proceedings.

The trio held hands as they walked onto the floor and Pearson raised a fist during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Offered a chance to defend himself before the vote, Jones said the GOP responded to the shooting with a different kind of attack.

“We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy,” he said.

Does anyone believe that if given the opportunity in the future, Democrats won’t continue to disrupt democratic proceedings on the House floor? It’s simple; all you need are a couple of hundred rabid, leather-lunged supporters to cram the galleries and a bullhorn. The prospect of protests without end bringing the people’s business to a standstill because a minority disagrees with a decision of the majority is enough to apply the harshest sentence possible on the guilty.

There are ways to protest and express your disagreement with the majority that don’t involve disrupting the decorum of the chamber or interrupting the business of the House. Jones and Pearson chose to turn the House into gun control theater. What other punishment would have been appropriate?

In Washington, President Joe Biden also was critical of the expulsions, calling them “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

“Rather than debating the merits of the issue (of gun control), these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” Biden said in a statement.

Pearson and Jones had no intention of “debating” anyone. They were screaming into a bullhorn in order to silence any opposition to their own protest. And there was no gun control bill before the House to debate so what is the old man talking about?

What Biden and the Democrats fail to mention is that there are two sides to the gun control issue and the other side has perfectly legitimate concerns about giving the government too much power in the matter of Second Amendment rights.

Jones and Pearson will be welcomed back as heroes when they return. No doubt they’ll try to pull the same stunt again. And when they do, the rights of the opposition will once again fall victim to the theatrical tactics of the left.

Study makes bizarre leap about guns and lethality of shootings

There’s always going to be some anti-gun study floating around. We’ve seen that time and time again, and the media will always be happy to report on that study with nary a word of criticism about, well, anything.

In fact, it’s almost amusing how little criticism these studies get.

The latest, in fact, doesn’t actually make a whole lot of sense. Why? Because it implies that guns have somehow become more lethal.

A new study has found that fatalities from gun violence in the U.S. have increased over time, with more victims dying at the scene of a shooting before they can be transferred to medical treatment facilities.

The research, which was published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined gun violence incidents from 1999 to 2021, including firearm deaths due to assaults, unintentional injuries and unknown intent.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers discovered the proportion of deaths at the scene increased from about 52% in 1999, to almost 57% in 2021.

Nearly 49,000 people died from gun violence in the U.S. in 2021, according to the CDC.

The research letter summarizing the study said this increase in fatalities was likely due to several factors, including higher guns sales, social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a “lack of new federal firearm legislation.”

Now, the good news is that this study didn’t count suicides. That’s actually surprising because it’s a handy way to skew findings in an anti-gun direction. So it seems the numbers are pretty accurate.

Where I have a problem, though, is their findings. Higher gun sales and lack of regulation don’t make guns more lethal. In fact, during the time period the study looked at, there weren’t really any advancements in firearm technology that would account for any such thing.

We also know that so-called assault weapons started becoming popular prior to this time period as a result of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, so it’s unlikely that would play a role. The researchers do try to blame larger capacity magazines, which might play a role–if you can put more rounds on target, the chances of killing someone are increased–but I don’t see how they figure they made that case.

In fact, they seem to suggest they didn’t even really look at that sort of thing when they note, “Further investigation of the temporal and geospatial distributions of prehospital deaths, weapons used, patterns of injury, and variations by race and ethnicity and age is needed to guide effective interventions.”

So they reached a conclusion as to why this was a problem when they don’t know any of that other stuff?

I don’t know, seems a little sketchy, which is why I say this study kind of doesn’t make any sense.

Yet again, though, they seem to just know the problem is the lack of federal gun control laws while not comprehending literally anything else? Yeah, no wonder people are growing to distrust research more and more.

It’s only too bad no one in the media will look at these studies twice.

Arkansas House OKs bill allowing permitless concealed carry

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A permit would not be required to carry a concealed handgun in Arkansas under a bill lawmakers sent Thursday to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which supporters say is meant to clear up a decade-old disagreement about the state’s gun laws.

Gov. Sanders’ office said she plans to sign the measure approved by the majority-Republican House on a 81-11 vote.

“The governor strongly supports the Second Amendment,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in a statement. “This bill further clarifies that Arkansas is a constitutional carry state.”

Both gun rights and gun control advocates already widely considered Arkansas to be one of more than two dozen states that don’t require a concealed carry permit. That followed a 2013 change to the state’s gun laws that prompted differing interpretations on how it’s affected the state’s concealed carry requirements.

The bill was approved Thursday with no debate in the House, but opponents have questioned the impact the legislation would have on a 2017 law that allows concealed handguns in certain locations, including the state Capitol. That law allows guns in previously-barred locations if someone undergoes additional training and gets an “enhanced” permit.

“This is going to cause huge amounts of confusion with respect to the enhanced concealed carry,” Democratic Rep. Nicole Clowney told members of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, referring to the 2017 law.

But supporters of the bill said it wouldn’t have any impact on that part of the law and the enhanced carry requirements would still exist.

“I believe we need this bill to pass to provide that clarification out there so we don’t have citizens basically being harassed because there’s a misunderstanding of what you can or cannot do,” Republican Rep. Marcus Richmond, the bill’s co-sponsor, told the House before Thursday’s vote.

There are more than 190,000 active concealed handgun licenses in Arkansas, and about 30,000 of them are enhanced licenses, according to the state’s Department of Public Safety.

The bill heads to Sanders’ desk as Republicans in other states have been loosening gun laws, despite mass shootings in recent years, including the fatal shooting of three children and three adults at a Nashville, Tennessee, Christian school last month.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed a new law that will allow concealed handguns to be carried without a permit. That law takes effect in July.

When Sanders signs Arkansas’ legislation, it won’t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its session, meaning the measure wouldn’t be enforced until this summer.

Man killed in a deputy-involved shooting in Greene County, Mo.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -A man is dead after a shooting involving Greene County Sheriff’s Deputies Friday morning. The deputies were called to a convenience store in the 5000 block of West Sunshine west of the Springfield city limits at 8:13 a.m. after a clerk identified a woman involved in a previous theft.

The woman ran across the road to an abandoned house. The deputies went to check the house and encountered the woman. She came out at 8:35 a.m. and was taken into custody.

The deputies then found a man who was holding a gun to his head. Sheriff Jim Arnott said the man told deputies “to shoot me, I’m not going back.” The deputies shot the man after he lunged at them. Arnott said the deputies administered first aid, but the man died.

Arnott said it is not known if the man shot at deputies. The sheriff’s critical investigative team which consists of the Christian, Greene, Lawrence and Webster County Sheriff’s Offices is now investigating. The two deputies are on administrative leave which is standard protocol when they are involved in a shooting.

“The deputies are obviously upset, shaken but they are not wounded. The sad news is they had to take a life,” said Arnott.

Arnott said a nearby neighbor stopped and said they had items stolen and the neighbor believes those items are inside the house. “I would assume that we will recover some stolen property,” said Arnott.

The names of the man and the woman haven’t been released.

April 7

451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.

529 – The Corpus Juris Civilis – The Civil Law- better known by the name of part of it; The Code of Justinian -one of the foundations of modern Law -is ordered to be compiled and issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu in the Philippines on his voyage of circumnavigation.

1776 – After a fierce, hour long fight off the Delaware Capes, Captain John Barry, commanding USS Lexington, captures HMS Edward,  renamed USS Sachem and commanded by Captain Isaiah Robinson, for use by the Secret Committee of the Continental Congress.

1788 – American pioneers to the Northwest Territory establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the area.

1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain.

1805 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition breaks winter camp at Fort Mandan near present day Washburn, North Dakota and resumes its journey west along the Missouri River in canoes, sending the keelboat back to St. Louis to return later.

1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.

1831 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil resigns to return to Portugal as King Pedro IV.

1865 – At the South Side Railroad’s bridges over the Appomattox River near Farmville, Virginia, Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s rear guard fails in the attempt to burn the bridges to prevent Union forces from following them across, allowing them to catch up with the Confederates north of the river at Cumberland Church north of Farmville.
Later that night General Lee receives a letter from General Grant proposing that the Army of Northern Virginia should surrender. Lee returns a letter asking about the surrender terms Grant might propose.

1922 – The United States Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Fall, accepts bribes to lease federal petroleum reserves on the Teapot Dome in Wyoming to private oil companies on excessively generous terms.

1927 – The first long distance public television broadcast from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displays the image of then Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.

1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

1945 – During Operation Ten-Go, the last major Japanese naval operation of World War II, the battleship Yamato, sent on a suicide mission, is sunk by American aircraft shortly after getting underway.

1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

1954 – President Eisenhower presents his “falling domino theory” of communist aggression during a news conference.

1964 – IBM introduces the mainframe System/360 computer system.

1978 – Development of the neutron, enhanced radiation nuclear bomb is canceled by President Carter.

1983 – During STS-6, the maiden flight of Shuttle Challenger, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

1990 – Retired Admiral John Poindexter is found guilty of five counts of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice for his actions in the Iran–Contra scandal, which are all later reversed on appeal.

1994 – In Rwanda, members of the Hutu tribe begin nation wide massacres of members of the Tutsi tribe, apparently because they’re Tutsis and not Hutus.

1994 – Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705, a cargo DC-10, enroute from Memphis to San Jose, California, in order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. The crew manages to subdue him and at trial he is sentenced to consecutive life terms in prison for attempted murder and air piracy.

2001 – The Mars Odyssey robotic spacecraft is launched from Cape Canaveral to orbit Mars as a communications relay satellite for exploration craft on the surface.

2003 – During the invasion of Iraq, Baghdad falls to U.S. troops.

2017 – A moslem Uzbek terrorist deliberately drives a hijacked truck into a crowd in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 5 people and injuring 15 more before crashing into building and fleeing the scene and arrested a few hours later.