Clearview AI is the company that downloaded hundreds of millions of identified, publicly available face pictures, and now makes a tool available to police that, when given a new face photo, finds the best match. This was done without permission of the photo sources, but Clearview argues permission is not needed.
There have been many critics of Clearview's approach. Now Clearview has responded with multiple subpoenas requesting information from many of its critics. These subpoenas are legally dubious, but will likely be expensive to fight. The good news, such as it is, is that if Clearview really thought it had a strong case, it probably wouldn't have bothered.
See www.politico.com/news/2021/09/24/clearview-ai-subpoena-watchdog-groups-514273.
Remember Protonmail, which promised user privacy but which turned over the IP address of a user to the Swiss police? Take a look at this:
encryp.ch/blog/truth-about-protonmail/
Most of it is overstated, but the point is that many people are suspicious. Also they're right about end-to-end encryption.
maya.land/monologues/2021/09/21/illegal-fox-picture.html
Or maybe not. The issue is whether the photo is being "displayed" for purposes of copyright law. It's a link from Instagram, and one part of the Perfect 10 v Google case (Ninth Circuit) was the "server test": Google is not the one doing the infringing if they display a linked image.
But the Second Circuit now begs to differ. Instagram says you have no
license (in their ToS), and, since you don't, you're in violation.
Lawsuits against Users
Sketchy discovery process
Jammie and Joel
The lawsuit model today
Privacy