Gathering up personal data without user permission, and then putting it to use in ways not originally intended by those users who provided it.
That's when we went too far.
This isn't hard.
Edit: And as a random aside, I'd be surprised if Clearview wasn't violating copyright law, here. When a person uploads a photo to Facebook, the user grants a license to Facebook.
So unless I'm missing something, Clearview is illegally copying and using these works without permission...
What precisely is "personal data"?
Can a nosey neighbor look out their window and note passersby that they recognize?
Can one recognize people whose face they saw somewhere (on TV, on a dating app etc) without "permission". (e.g. "I'm pretty sure I just saw my tinder match going into a bar with someone")?
What if someone has a very good memory for faces and a curiosity to match? What if someone employ scouts to report when they spot certain people?
What if someone automate these processes?
Where is the line between private informatio and publicly available raw data such as photons bouncing off people's faces?
At risk of violating HN's policy: it's this kind of sophistry that allows tech employees and entrepreneurs to justify their predatory behaviour... bend over backwards hard enough and you can find the logic to justify nearly anything.
Let's try it!
How do you define a biological weapon?
If I know I'm sick and I deliberately sneeze on people, am I a weapon?
If I pay people with an illness to sneeze on people, is that a weapon?
What if I cultivate smallpox in a lab and spread it with an aerosol sprayer instead of using human carriers?
Where is the line on what is a biological weapon? Where along the way did we go too far?
That's when we went too far.
This isn't hard.
Edit: And as a random aside, I'd be surprised if Clearview wasn't violating copyright law, here. When a person uploads a photo to Facebook, the user grants a license to Facebook.
So unless I'm missing something, Clearview is illegally copying and using these works without permission...