'I'd never seen such an audacious attack on anonymity before': Clearview AI and the creepy tech that can identify you with a single picture

Kashmir Hill recalls the emergence of Clearview AI , the facial recognition technology company that burst into public consciousness with its artificial intelligence (AI) software that could supposedly identify pretty much anyone with just a single shot of their face.

The company was selling this superpower to police departments around the country but trying to keep its existence a secret.

Hill had been covering privacy, and its steady erosion, for more than a decade .

New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill was skeptical when she got a tip about a new app called Clearview AI that claimed it could identify anyone based on just one snapshot of their face.

Hill: The app could supposedly scan a face and, in just seconds, surface every detail of a person’s online life: their name, social media profiles, friends and family members, home address, and photos that they might not have even known existed.

If it was everything it claimed to be, it would be the ultimate surveillance tool and it would open the door to everything from stalking to totalitarian state control.