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JoeMerchant [soylentnews.org] writes:

The following are top [builtin.com] facial recognition [builtin.com] companies [globalcybersecuritynetwork.com] packaging technology to simplify identity verification for businesses, consumers and government: Cognitec, Sensory, iProov, HyperVerge, Clarifai, Amazon Rekognition, there are many others. They use one or a combination of traditional algorithms, deep learning, optical and infrared sensors, 3D scans, other technology and of course hybrids of the many approaches.

Mother Jones is known for long political stories, this one [motherjones.com] is based on a successful facial recognition company, Clearview, and how they got their technology widely deployed (and highly remunerated) in a short time, and the underlying political ideology that drove the developers in their mission:

an interesting idea…The United States of America was founded on the idea that all men are created equal. And Curtis simply asked a question, as I remember it: ‘What if they’re not? What do you do?…How do you govern that?’…That’s what we talked about all the time.”

Clearview is riding a wave [cbinsights.com] of demand [growjo.com] in the sea of identity tracking technology, and they don't look likely to wipe out anytime soon:

Since Clearview’s existence first came to light in 2020, the secretive company has attracted outsize controversy for its dystopian privacy implications. Corporations like Macy’s allegedly used Clearview on shoppers, according to legal records; law enforcement has deployed it against activists and protesters; and multiple government investigations have found federal agencies’ use of the product failed to comply with privacy requirements. Many local and state law enforcement agencies now rely on Clearview as a tool in everyday policing, with almost no transparency about how they use the tech. “What Clearview does is mass surveillance, and it is illegal,” the privacy commissioner of Canada said in 2021. In 2022, the ACLU settled a lawsuit with Clearview for allegedly violating an Illinois state law that prohibits unauthorized biometric harvesting. Data protection authorities in France, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands have also ruled that the company’s data collection practices are illegal. To date, they have fined Clearview around $100 million.

It's amazing what impact a small group of technology oriented people can have in today's society.

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