Clearview AI, the company that already knows your face, requires a picture of your face to opt-out

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Whelp, it seems that the fresh hell that is privacy-invasion, Clearview AI, got even worse after all the media attention earlier this week. Just after the initial media reports Clearview AI updated its privacy policy to include an opt-out option.

The kicker? You have to send them a selfie and a picture of your government-issued identification. Umm, isn’t the whole issue that they have our images?

To opt-out of Clearview AI’s face-scraping, you have to send them… your face

https://twitter.com/snowjake/status/1220073078752862212

Wait, what? You have to send the privacy-invading, web scraping against ToS, collecting your images without consent, company not one, but two things with your face on them? What is this Kafkaesque monstrosity?

READ MORE: Shady AI company agrees to limit sales of facial recognition tech

Anyway, to get your pictures out of the hands of this company, you have to email them at privacy-requests@clearview.ai. That supposedly connects you to their Data Protection Officer, who can answer questions or facilitate takedown requests.

The thing is, you have to send them your full name, your government ID, and a selfie (why they need the last one if you’re sending your ID is beyond me). They say they’ll delete the images sent for opt-out once they’ve complied, but that doesn’t mean they will comply. Heck, for all we know, it’s just a way to confirm that the images their web-crawling programs collected are actually you.

What do you think? Surprised by this news regarding Clearview AI? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.