More than 2,200 agencies and companies have tried Clearview, report finds

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Secretive startup Clearview AI distributes an apparently very powerful facial recognition tool that matches anyone against an enormous database of photos—it claims more than 3 billion—scraped from basically every major US platform on the Internet. A leaked list now reveals that more than 2,200 government agencies and private businesses have tried the service.

Clearview, which first came to light courtesy of a New York Times report from January, claims to have about 600 customers, all in law enforcement. The company has repeatedly refused to make a client list public, however, and previous reports find that at least some of its marketing claims are significantly exaggerated.

Earlier this week, Clearview disclosed that its client list and some information about searches those customers have run was lost in a data breach. Reporters at BuzzFeed ended up with access to a copy and found far more in it than Clearview has ever admitted.

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