According to new documents unearthed by 404 Media, Clearview was prepared to invest nearly $1 million in Investigative Consultant, Inc. (ICI). This 2019 deal—signed while Clearview was quietly expanding its database with your grandmother’s Facebook profile picture—was meant to supercharge its already terrifying facial recognition empire with government-grade data from all 50 states.
The idea was to create a one-stop shop for biometric profiling, encompassing mugshots, arrest records, Social Security numbers (SSNs), and contact information.
Clearview, which had already sparked global outrage when the New York Times exposed its hobby of scraping billions of faces from social media, clearly saw no issue in adding an arrest record smorgasbord to its ever-growing Orwellian buffet.
Mercifully, the deal collapsed after Clearview and ICI turned on each other, squabbling over whether the data was worth the price. Both sides lobbed breach of contract claims, eventually settling into arbitration, where, in a rare twist, the arbiter sided with Clearview and ordered ICI to return the money.
ICI hasn’t paid a penny, prompting Clearview to now beg the courts to force them to hand it over.
ICI President Donald Berlin has previously been accused of fabricating intelligence reports and throwing libel around like confetti, which makes him a perfect match for Clearview. This company once sold the idea of scraping your holiday photos as a “law enforcement innovation.”
Clearview proudly advertises that its technology is fuelled by “public-only” sources, a definition so loose that it includes mugshot databases, news sites, and the shattered remains of your social media dignity. It boasts a “50+ billion facial image” database and has openly told clients that it aims to collect all US mugshots from the last 15 years.
While Clearview didn’t get its hands on this motherlode, its mission hasn’t changed: digitise every face, link it to every scrap of personal data possible, and flog it to whichever government agency or private client is willing to pay.
