Policing tool so controversial authorities rarely admit to using it is linked to more than 1,000 criminal investigations [Video]

02:03 EDT 07 Oct 2024, updated 02:14 EDT 07 Oct 2024

A controversial facial recognition company that’s built a massive photographic dossier of the world’s people for use by law enforcement, has been used in more than 1,000 police investigations without authorities announcing use of the software. 

Despite opposition from lawmakers, regulators, privacy advocates and the websites it scrapes for data, Clearview AI has continued to rack up new contracts with police departments and other government agencies.

But now an investigation by The Washington Post has revealed how hundreds of U.S. citizens have been arrested after being connected to the crime, not through good old fashioned policing, but through use of the facial recognition software.

The Post was able to sift through four years of records from police departments in 15 states that documented how the software was used.