Facebook promises to delete over 1 billion face scans, but law enforcement still has the data

The news: Facebook said it will shut down its facial recognition system, delete more than a billion facial scans of users, and no longer recognize them in photos, per Insider.

Why this matters: Facebook was one of the sources that facial recognition company Clearview AI scraped for a searchable database used by police and law enforcement. Clearview AI amassed facial data of billions of users without their consent and packaged them as part of their service. US law enforcement and federal agencies are using facial recognition services with little or no oversight.

• Clearview AI scraped more than 3 billion personal photos from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo, and millions of other websites. Its permanent searchable database is accessed by more than 2,400 police agencies including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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