NASA Scanning Faces

Hey Kaitlyn, Joseph here with a surveillance scoop: controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI has a new customer. And it's... NASA? Yep, don't imagine you saw that coming! It's unclear what exactly NASA is using Clearview AI for, but the part of NASA using it is one tasked with internal investigations. Still, it's reasonable for government agencies to answer what they're using powerful tech like this for. The full story follows below.

NASA bought access to Clearview AI, a powerful and controversial surveillance tool that uses billions of images scraped from social media to perform facial recognition, according to U.S. government procurement data reviewed by 404 Media.

The news shows that Clearview AI is spreading beyond federal law enforcement agencies and into other parts of the U.S. government. It also raises questions about what exactly NASA is using the tool for. The part of NASA that will use the Clearview AI license is its oversight body, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has special agents who sometimes carry concealed firearms, perform undercover operations, and develop cases for criminal or civil prosecution.

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“Clearview AI license,” the procurement record reads. The contract was for $16,000 and was signed in August, it adds.

Clearview AI is a facial recognition company that can take a photo of the face of the target, and run it against the company’s database of around 30 billion faces. Clearview AI obtained many of these images by scraping the web, including sites and services like Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo. When the New York Times first reported on Clearview in January 2020, a researcher who provided documents to the Times said Clearview  “appears to be crossing the Rubicon on facial recognition technology.” Often the tool is used in the form of an app installed on customers’ phones.

Historically the company’s main market has been law enforcement, with federal, state, and local agencies all paying for access to Clearview AI. Law enforcement agencies around the world also use Clearview AI. The company has explored selling to private businesses too, with some previously using the technology. Clearview AI now says on its website its technology is available as an anti-fraud mechanism for banks, payments, visitor management (the site shows a picture of an identity card), and authentication (it shows a picture of two tickets).

The company has faced a wave of lawsuits and challenges from regulators. Dutch authorities recently fined Clearview AI €30.5 million and banned it from selling the tech in the Netherlands. In the UK, Clearview AI overturned a fine from the country’s privacy regulator.

A screenshot of a document on NASA's website explaining what the Office of Investigations does.

The procurement record says that the contracting office was NASA’s Shared Services Center, which handles procurement, according to NASA’s website.

When asked for comment a NASA spokesperson wrote in an email “The license was purchased on behalf of NASA’s Office of Inspector General.” A spokesperson for the OIG then added “Thank you for the inquiry, however we have no comment.”

The OIG is the oversight body of NASA tasked with investigating fraud, waste, and abuse inside the space agency. It is not clear what specifically the OIG is using (or plans to use) Clearview AI for. One part of the OIG is the Office of Investigations, which investigates “allegations of crime, cyber-crime, fraud, abuse, and misconduct having an impact on NASA programs, personnel, and resources,” according to the OIG website.

“They are empowered to make arrests, carry concealed firearms, take sworn statements, conduct undercover operations, and execute search warrants in performance of their duties,” a document on NASA’s website reads.