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Facebook and LinkedIn follow Twitter’s suit demanding Clear view AI to stop scrapping user images

Richard M. FEBRUARY 7, 2020 1 minute read

The previous month, after NewYork Times’ critical report on the facial recognition tech of Clearview AI, the company has been facing legal claims. Twitter was the first one to send them a cease-and-desist letter clearly demanding them to stop scrapping its users’ data.

Now, Facebook has followed the suit demanding Clearview AI to stop scraping data from its social platform for its controversial facial recognition tech. The spokesperson for the company said in a statement

“Scraping people’s information violates our policies, which is why we’ve demanded that Clearview stop accessing or using information from Facebook or Instagram.”

LinkedIn joined Facebook a day later demanding the same thing from Clearview AI. Though Facebook didn’t file a lawsuit, LinkedIn went quite serious like Youtube and Twitter sending a cease-and-desist letter to the company.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News; the LinkedIn spokesperson said

“We are sending a cease & desist letter to Clearview AI. The scraping of member information is not allowed under our terms of service and we take action to protect our members”

Here’s a LinkedIn spokesperson on Clearview AI:

“We are sending a cease & desist letter to Clearview AI. The scraping of member information is not allowed under our terms of service and we take action to protect our members.”

— Ryan Mac ? (@RMac18) February 6, 2020

Facebook has sent multiple letters to Clearview demanding them to clarify their policies and cleary provide information regarding their policies. Through these letters, Facebook is evaluating its options whether to go for a cease-and-desist letter just like other companies or not.

Even after big tech giants stepping forward, Hoan Ton-That – Clearview AI’s CEO – argues that since the data is publicly available so they hold the right to use the data.

“There is also a First Amendment right to public information. The way we have built our system is to only take publicly available information and index it that way.”

However, the company doesn’t take explicit permissions to use pictures that can land them in legal problems.

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