October 2023

I had been looking forward to receiving this book for a while having pre-ordered it a while ago. Kashmir Hill is a gifted writer (she writes for the New York Times) so I expected good things.

I was not disappointed. The book is beautifully written and at times it was easy to forget that it is not a work of creative fiction.

It tells the story of Clearview AI Inc, the company that set out to capture the world's faces. Hill explores the way in which facial recognition technologies are used by governments as well as private companies (largely big tech/social media) and how this is reshaping our lives.

As is so often the case, it is fascinating (and often terrifying) to lift the lid on the individuals pulling the strings and get an insight into their motivations.

I am a big fan of good authors, like Hill. So, it was an unexpected extra ‘book-worm treat’ to hear her present to us at the 45th Global Privacy Assembly in October 2023.

What was also unexpected was the development, in the same week, of Clearview AI's successful appeal against a £7.5 million fine by the UK Information Commissioner's Office for its use of its facial recognition database.

This story is about the non-consensual mass collection of our facial images but the issues detailed in this book are far from fictional. We would do well to listen to the cautionary tales from those who do the heavy work of lifting lids and exploring the details.

“This is huge if true...I had been covering privacy, and its steady erosion, for more than a decade. I often describe my beat as “the looming tech dystopia - and how we can try to avoid it” but I’d never seen such an audacious attack on anonymity before.”