What can you do to stay safe?

We'll be honest — it's likely that Clearview already has images of you stored on its servers. According to the company, its database holds some three billion images.

However, if social media companies really put their feet down, there's a chance that Clearview might have to purge its servers and start again. This would be a great result for ordinary citizens, although it is certainly a long way off at the moment.

To avoid being snared by something like this again, we'd recommend keeping your various social media accounts as private as possible. On Instagram and Twitter, this is fairly easy to do — head to the privacy sub-section of the settings menu. On Facebook, you'll need to head to your profile and then change the settings one-by-one. With YouTube, you'll need to head into your main Google Account settings and change them from there.

How can companies like Clearview do this?

Largely, because they can. There's a distinct lack of regulation around facial recognition at any level of government. Sure, San Francisco has banned its police department from using facial recognition tech, for example. But, without a consistent approach at a local, state, federal, or international level, these kind of protections are limited in their efficacy.

Another problem is that a lot of the general public simply has too much to think about before getting round to considering the moral implications of facial recognition. In between paying bills, going to work, looking after loved ones, arguing over politics and worrying about climate change, there's precious little time to ponder how one tech geek and a rich investor have given police the tools to constantly surveil what you're up to.

However, when the implications of such technology is raised with regular people, it is often met with strong opposition. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to turn this anger into effective legislation — cutting police powers is always a difficult sell. And, in our seemingly dangerous world, the idea that you only need worry if you've done something wrong seems more prosaic than ever.