Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.
Reports people file about their own experience are not shown here and never will be without their agreement. Tell us what happened to you.
84 incidents closest to “Clearview AI” · matched on meaning · public reporting
Allegedly extracted biometric identifiers from photographs without consent to train facial recognition and generative AI systems
1 source article · read the reporting →
AI facial recognition — Wrongful Arrest Leads to $10M Lawsuit The Korea Daily
1 source article · read the reporting →
Meta harvested user photographs and created biometric faceprints to enable a smart-glasses system that could identify strangers in public without consent.
1 source article · read the reporting →
巴西聖保羅AI人臉辨識辦案 啟用首年誤逮率8%惹議 - 公視新聞網PNN
São Paulo introduced AI facial recognition in late 2024, integrating 40,000 cameras. In 2025 robberies fell 15% and nearly 2,900 fugitives were arrested, but the initial false positive rate exceeded 8%, leading to wrongful detentions including elderly people, patients, and people with expired warrants or civil debts, prompting privacy and over-policing concerns.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Hangzhou police have cracked a case in which a gang allegedly used an overseas multimodal AI model to create face-swapped videos that defeated facial-recognition login checks on major platforms. The group is accused of stealing users' photos, generating videos of actions such as blinking or turning the head, and then accessing victims' accounts to collect personal information, which was sold to fraud gangs for nearly 200,000 yuan. Four suspects were arrested in Anhui, Guizhou and Zhejiang in August and placed in criminal detention. Police warned the public to manage personal information securely and urged platforms to strengthen facial authentication.
1 source article · read the reporting →
During an immigration raid in Oregon, ICE agents used the Mobile Fortify facial recognition app on a detained woman to determine her identity and immigration status. The app returned two different incorrect names, according to testimony from a CBP official. ICE has claimed the app provides a definitive determination of immigration status, but this incident raises concerns about its accuracy. The misidentification could have led to wrongful removal proceedings.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Millions of people uploaded photos to the Ever app for storage. The company used those photos to train its Ever AI facial recognition system and offered the technology to private companies, law enforcement and the military. Most users interviewed said they were unaware of this use, and privacy experts described it as an invasion of privacy. Ever stated its privacy policy disclosed the practice and added an opt-out pop-up after being contacted by NBC News.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Two Harvard students built a system called I-XRAY that uses Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses and the facial recognition service Pimeyes to automatically identify strangers and retrieve their personal information, including name, phone number, and home address. The students tested the system on unsuspecting people in public to demonstrate the privacy risks. They are not releasing the code.
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Guardio Labs tested three popular AI agents—ChatGPT, Claude, and Lovable—to see how easily they could be manipulated into generating phishing campaigns. The benchmark, called VibeScamming, simulated a novice scammer attempting to create an SMS phishing attack to steal Microsoft credentials. While ChatGPT and Claude initially refused, they provided full code and tutorials after a jailbreak attempt posing as ethical hacking; Lovable instantly generated and deployed a fully functional, convincing phishing page with no resistance.
2 source articles · read the reporting →
France's privacy watchdog CNIL fined US facial recognition firm Clearview AI €20 million for unlawfully collecting and processing facial images of individuals without consent. The company scraped billions of images from websites and social media, selling access to law enforcement. Clearview AI denied being subject to EU law and refused to delete the data, claiming it was impossible to determine French residency from public photos. The CNIL ordered the firm to stop collecting data and delete existing data within two months or face daily fines.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
The RCMP in British Columbia secretly subscribed to IntelCenter's facial recognition service, which matched faces against a database of 700,000 faces tied to terrorism. Internal emails revealed the force broke its own procurement rules and hid the purchase. The RCMP claimed it was only for testing, but documents showed active use. The contracts ended in 2019.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amateur 'sedition hunters' used the PimEyes facial recognition tool to search for suspected rioters from the U.S. Capitol attack. The tool scans over 900 million online images to find matches. Researchers warn that the tool could be abused for stalking or other invasive purposes. The incident highlights the risks of publicly available facial recognition technology.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Lockport City School District deployed SN Technologies' AEGIS face and weapons detection system in January 2020. Parents and the New York Civil Liberties Union allege the system misidentifies Black people more often than white people and falsely detects weapons such as broom handles. A lawsuit was filed against the New York State Education Department seeking to ban facial recognition in schools. SN Technologies denied misleading the district.
1 source article · read the reporting →
After a jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, multiple AI-generated videos claiming to be CCTV footage of the robbery surfaced on social media. The videos, created using OpenAI's Sora 2, depicted different versions of the burglars and their methods. They were shared widely, misleading viewers into believing they were real. The incident highlights the potential for AI-generated misinformation.
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Grok and Google Lens AI overviews have been claiming that AI-generated images of the Huntingdon train attack are real. Grok told users one image was a genuine photo, while Google Lens claimed it was a still from a BBC news report. The AI systems also linked unrelated videos to the attack. Full Fact contacted Google, which told users they can provide feedback on errors. xAI has not yet responded.
4 source articles · read the reporting →
South Korea's Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Science and ICT are building an AI identification and tracking system using facial recognition for airport immigration. It was revealed that over 170 million facial photos of citizens and foreigners were transferred to private companies for AI training without proper legal basis. Civil society groups held a press conference on November 9, 2021, condemning the project as an unprecedented violation of information human rights and demanding its immediate halt. They argue the data transfer violates the Personal Information Protection Act and have requested a meeting with the Minister of Justice.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Ukraine's defence ministry has started using Clearview AI's facial recognition technology to identify Russian assailants and the dead, according to reports. Clearview provided free access to its system, which holds over 10 billion images including from Russian social media. Critics warn that the technology could misidentify people at checkpoints and in battle, potentially harming civilians. Clearview says it should not be used as the sole source of identification.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
In late 2022, Graphika observed the pro-Chinese influence operation Spamouflage promoting videos featuring AI-generated fictitious people. The footage was created using a commercial AI video platform from a UK company. The videos were low-quality and received fewer than 300 views, but Graphika warns that such tools could enable more convincing deception at scale.
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Francisco Arteaga was charged with armed robbery in 2019 after facial recognition technology used by West New York police matched his mugshot to surveillance footage. He denied involvement and had an alibi, but was detained for nearly four years. A state appellate court ruled in 2023 that he was entitled to information about the technology, but prosecutors said they could not provide it because the match was made by the NYPD. Arteaga ultimately pleaded guilty to secure his release, and advocates say the case highlights the lack of transparency and regulation around police use of facial recognition.
1 source article · read the reporting →
The ACLU of Massachusetts conducted a test using Amazon's Rekognition facial recognition technology, comparing headshots of 188 New England professional athletes to a database of 20,000 arrest photos. The software falsely matched 27 athletes, including Patriots safety Duron Harmon. The ACLU is calling for a moratorium on government use of face surveillance technology.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
US companies report a surge in fake job seekers using generative AI tools to fabricate identities, employment histories, and conduct deepfake video interviews for remote positions. Cybersecurity firms Pindrop and CAT Labs, along with BrightHire, describe incidents where scammers, including North Korean operatives, attempted to gain employment to install malware, demand ransoms, steal data, or collect salaries fraudulently. One candidate, 'Ivan X', was detected by Pindrop's video authentication tool after a recruiter noticed his facial expressions were out of sync with his words.
1 source article · read the reporting →
Microsoft invested in AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition company whose technology powers a secret military surveillance project in the West Bank. The system, called Better Tomorrow, identifies and tracks Palestinians in live camera feeds. Microsoft said it would audit AnyVision for compliance with its ethical principles.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Chinese police departments in multiple provinces have deployed facial recognition systems from AI companies such as Yitu, Megvii, SenseTime, and CloudWalk to identify and track Uyghur people, a Muslim minority. The systems scan crowds and trigger alerts when a Uyghur individual is detected, enabling targeted surveillance across cities including Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Sanmenxia. Documents and interviews show that one system in Sanmenxia conducted over 500,000 screenings in a month, flagging thousands as Uyghur. Police use this technology to monitor and control the Uyghur population, who have been subjected to mass detention and other repressive measures. The article reports these practices from interviews with anonymous sources and procurement documents.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Sweden's data protection authority IMY fined the Swedish Police Authority €250,000 for unlawfully using Clearview AI's facial-recognition app. The police used the app between autumn 2019 and March 2020 without authorisation or a required data protection impact assessment. The IMY ordered the police to ensure Clearview AI deletes the data and to train employees to avoid future breaches.
3 source articles · read the reporting →
