Clearview AI will get a US patent for its facial recognition tech

Clearview AI is about to get formal acknowledgment for its controversial facial recognition technology. Politicoreports Clearview has received a US Patent and Trademark Office “notice of allowance” indicating officials will approve a filing for its system, which scans faces across public internet data to find people from government lists and security camera footage. The company just has to pay administrative fees to secure the patent.

In a Politico interview, Clearview founder Hoan Ton-That claimed this was the first facial recognition patent involving “large-scale internet data.” The firm sells its tool to government clients (including law enforcement) hoping to accelerate searches.

As you might imagine, there’s a concern the USPTO is effectively blessing Clearview’s technology and giving the company a chance to grow despite widespread objections to its technology’s very existence. Critics are concerned Clearview is building image databases without targets’ knowledge or permission, and multiple governments (including Australia and the UK) believe the facial recognition violates data laws. The tech could theoretically be used to stifle political dissent or, in private use, to stalk other people. That’s not including worries about possible gender and race biases for facial recognition as a whole. 

Ton-That maintained Clearview has no plans to sell to anyone besides government clients, and that it was “important” to have unbiased systems. However, the patent left the door open to non-government purposes, like learning more about a dating partner or business client. Clearview is aware of the problematic path its technology might take, even if it doesn’t intend to head in that direction.

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Leaked 'Fortnite' Chapter 3 trailer shows a new island and Spider-Man

Fortnite Chapter 2 has only just come to an end, but that isn’t preventing sleuths from finding out what Chapter 3 will hold. As Kotakulearned, the game’s official Polish YouTube channel briefly shared a Chapter 3 trailer revealing many of the planned changes to the battery royale brawler. You can expect a new island (and new characters, including Gears of War‘s Marcus and Kait as well as Spider-Man — there even appears to be web-swinging like you’ve seen in Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, not to mention locales like the Daily Bugle.

Chapter 3 will add some new mechanics on top of fresh weapons and items. You can slide (seen in the Chapter 2 finale), and set up camps to both heal your squad and stash items you can carry over to future matches. And there’s even a degree of star power: The Foundation, a character voiced by Dwayne Johnson, will carry over from the Chapter 2 shutdown.

It’s not clear when Chapter 3 debuts. However, Epic wasn’t afraid to repeat history and kick players out of Fortnite as the previous chapter came to an end. Chapter 2 closed in dramatic fashion, with The Foundation helping to defeat a Cube Queen invasion and flipping the entire island upside-down. If you stuck with the event, you were left treading water and with no option but to quit the game. Clearly, Epic is betting this dramatic ploy will work a second time.

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Twitter mistakenly suspended users after extremists abused its private image policy

If you were worried people might abuse Twitter’s new policy banning non-consensual image sharing, your fears were well-founded. The social network toldThe Washington Post it suspended the accounts of 12 journalists and anti-extremism researchers by mistake after far-right activists and white supremacists sent a “coordinated and malicious” flurry of bogus reports attempting to silence critics. It wasn’t clear how many reports had been sent beyond a “significant amount.”

The company said it was already reversing bans and had begun an internal review to make sure the policy was used “as intended.” More data on the volume of false accusations would come later. Some of the extremists’ targets were still banned as of the Post‘s story.

The rule bars users from sharing private photos and videos without the subject’s permission. It also forbids people from threatening to share that content or spurring others to leak it. There are exceptions for posts where the media might offer “value to public discourse.” At least one of the banned targets was merely sharing public photos of known figures, however.

This misuse doesn’t come as a complete shock. Critics were already concerned the measure was too vaguely worded to prevent misuse. It might stifle amateur investigators sifting through readily available data, for instance. While Twitter might not want to overhaul its policy, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were clarifications or tweaks to limit potential abuses going forward.

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