Your Face Belongs to Us

For fans of Bad Blood, a thrilling account of the tech start-up selling radical new form of facial recognition

In this riveting feat of reporting, Kashmir Hill uncovers the secret history of Clearview AI, a mysterious start-up selling an app that can identify you using just a blurry photo of your face. The app can find your name, your social media profiles, your friends and family – even your home address. Launched by computer engineer Hoan Ton-That and politician Richard Schwartz, and assisted by a cast of controversial characters with connections to the alt-right, this app would have society-altering potential.

The story of Clearview AI opens a window into our tortured relationship with technology, the way it entertains and seduces us even as it exploits us. Hill’s exposé illuminates how the growth of facial recognition technology is fundamentally reshaping our lives, from its use by tech companies and governments to the consequences of racial and gender biases baked into the AI. Soon it could expand the reach of policing—as it has in China and Russia—to a terrifying, dystopian level.

Your Face Belongs to Us is a gripping, character-driven true story, and a powerful warning that in the absence of regulation, this technology will spell the end of our anonymity.