Kashmir HillAug 30, 2023

A few years ago, I got a tip that seemed too outrageous to be true: A mysterious company called Clearview AI claimed it had scraped billions of photos from the public web to identify just about anyone based only on a snapshot of their face.

It led me on a fascinating reporting journey and to my book, YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US, coming out in 3 weeks! One big question is whether the average person is ready for a world in which anonymity ceases to exist.

Preorder here! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/your-face-belongs-to-us-by-kashmir-hill/

Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill: 9780593448571 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The story of a small AI company that gave facial recognition to law enforcement, billionaires, and businesses, threatening to end ...

PenguinRandomhouse.com
Show threadDavid EilersAug 30, 2023
@kashhill thanks! I just ordered it. I am not sure how much anonymity exists anyway. My aunt has never owned a computer, nor smart phone, nor had an email, but you can find info about her on the web.
Sounds like it will only get worse….
Show threadKashmir Hill
@deilers Thank you much. Networked privacy is the challenge! I thought a lot about that when I was investigating Facebook's People You May Know and how its uncanny predictions were fueled by people who handed over their contact books. People would say, 'Why do they know who I know? I never gave them my contacts!' But if your friends handed over their contacts, then they've told Facebook who your social circle is. Too many leaky buckets of information in the digital age.
Aug 31, 2023 at 12:16amWeb
Show threadDavid EilersOct 10, 2023
@kashhill Finished your book this morning. It is well-written, fast-paced and informative!

In 2003, I moved to CA as part of a startup w/Joe Firmage, the CEO who left US Web in 1999 to find aliens. We co-founded ManyOne Networks to build a Wikipedia-like expert-stewarded system.

Like Ton That, Joe cut corners. It became a mess. All left, but Joe kept raising cash thru dubious means. Joe: 08/31/23 https://tinyurl.com/usehyxtn

Thanks for the thoughtful, albeit scary, book!
Tech Entrepreneur Sued Over $25 Million Lab Project Ponzi Scheme

Joe Firmage, an entrepreneur who claimed to have devised a new aerospace propulsion technology concept, allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme to solicit investments by misrepresenting that the project had been awarded federal contracts, according to a Utah federal lawsuit filed by his backers.