# Apple Has Blocked Clearview AI's iPhone App for Violating Its Rules

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/apple-has-blocked-clearview-ais-iphone-app-for-violating-its-rules/71894>\
**Category:** News & Articles\
**Tags:** tools, phone, operating-system, ai\
**Created:** [February 29, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/apple-has-blocked-clearview-ais-iphone-app-for-violating-its-rules/71894 "2020-02-29T12:26:23Z")\
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**Author:** ![Aina](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aina/32/167469_2.png) [@Aina](https://onehack.st/u/Aina)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/apple-has-blocked-clearview-ais-iphone-app-for-violating-its-rules/71894/1 "2020-02-29T12:26:23Z")

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An iPhone app built by controversial facial recognition startup [Clearview AI has been blocked by Apple](https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/28/apple-ban-clearview-iphone/), effectively banning the app from use. From a report: _Apple confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup “violated” the terms of its enterprise program. The app allows its users – which the company claims it serves only law enforcement officers – to use their phone camera or upload a photo to search its database of three billion photos. But BuzzFeed News [revealed](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/clearview-ai-fbi-ice-global-law-enforcement) that the company – which claims to only cater to law enforcement users – also includes many private sector users, including Macy’s, Walmart, and Wells Fargo. Clearview AI has been at the middle of a media – and legal – storm [since its public debut](https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/01/18/2129220/facial-recognition-database-with-3-billion-scraped-images-might-end-privacy-as-we-know-it) in The New York Times last month. The company scrapes public photos from social media sites, drawing ire from the big tech giants which claim Clearview AI misused their services. But it’s also gained attention from hackers. On Wednesday, Clearview AI [confirmed a data breach](https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/02/26/1711230/clearview-ai-reports-breach-of-customer-list), in which its client list was stolen._