'No one has done what we do at this scale with this accuracy,' he said later in the conference, adding that anyone 'is able to solve cases instantaneously if they get matches in the system.'Д¬learview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That, center, seated at a table during the Connect:ID conference. This likely protects Clearview AI from liability in the case of an incorrect search result.Д«ut Ton-That frequently slipped from the PR-approved language when touting the technology. This is an important distinction because 'match' implies that Clearview delivers a definitive search result, while 'investigative lead' suggests the technology is just a starting point or one piece of data for broader investigations by law enforcement and other authorities. Ton-That then noted that Clearview search results are 'investigative leads' and not matches. 'But really there's no such thing as a false positive because it's not an affirmative match?' Clearview's new PR rep, Josh Zecher, said to Ton-That from across the table. Ton-That dodged the question, while Jones said 'we always encourage feedback.' But in essence, no, you can't report false positives to Clearview. The same man later asked whether Clearview has any way to report false positives or provide feedback on results. Ton-That said it had only scraped photos that were already public. One man from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security asked how the company responded to the controversy that erupted after the public learned it had scraped billions of images from the internet. Ton-That and Clearview's new vice president of federal sales, Matt Jones, fielded questions. The company's Q&A roundtable event, though, got heavy attendance. While some conference booths for facial-recognition vendors were bustling, Clearview's setup was comparatively quiet. There was a level of awareness - even in an industry that critics allege violates people's privacy - that Clearview took an exceptional step by collecting photos of people posted on social media. 'Aren't they the people who scraped all those photos?' one attendee said. Throughout the conference, when Clearview came up in conversation, people's expressions would grow serious, or irritated. (Many companies train their algorithms on photos from the internet, though).

This is often something like a database of mugshots or worker ID photos. Other facial-recognition vendors, such as NEC and Panasonic, usually match search images with faces in a database provided by a client. Clearview matches search images with billions of pictures it's scraped from social media.

There's a fundamental difference between Clearview and most facial-recognition providers, and the sense I got from this conference is that the industry is upset with the company for giving the technology a bad name. Minutes before it started, Grant was told Ton-That had bailed, for an unknown reason. In one discussion, an attendee called the company 'the worst facial-recognition company in the world.' When I caught up with Jeremy Grant from the law firm Venable LLP, he said he was dismayed to discover he would be talking on a panel with Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That. One government contractor said Clearview was 'creepy.' He told me he'd read about the company's extensive ties to the far rightВ and was alarmed by that. Several industry professionals openly expressed not liking or respecting the company. I overheard multiple conversations that referred to Clearview with skepticism, at best. When I attended the surveillance-technology conference Connect:ID recently, the elephant in the room was Clearview AI, a company that matches search images with pictures scraped from the internet. Its CEO argues for a reasonable expectation of privacy at events that journalists might attend.The industry is upset with the company for giving facial-recognition technology a bad name.When Clearview came up in conversation, people's expressions would grow serious, or irritated.

Clearview screens