The AFP has admitted its interest in the facial recognition tool Clearview AI.

Clearview AI is an advanced facial recognition tool that can identify a person that is not in police databases, often based on poor-quality images.

The software uses a giant database of faces in images scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites.

The Australian Federal Police has admitted to testing Clearview AI after initially denying its use.

BuzzFeed News initially revealed that the AFP was among 2,200 law enforcement agencies using the platform worldwide.

The AFP initially denied this, but in answers to questions on notice now says it used a free trial of the tool between 2 November 2019 and 22 January 2020.

It said its national and international network of agencies working to counter child exploitation told it that Clearview AI would have value to the AFP.

“This trial involved nine invitations sent from Clearview AI to AFP officers to register for a free trial,” the AFP said.

“Of these, seven AFP officers then activated the trial and conducted searches.

“These searches included images of known individuals, and unknown individuals related to current or past investigations relating to child exploitation.”

The AFP said it had “not entered into any formal procurement arrangements”.

“It is our understanding, accepting the limited pilot outlined above, that no other areas or individuals have utilised the Clearview AI product or engaged with the company,” it said.

The AFP said it had earlier denied using the platform because there “was no visibility” of the trial from outside of the ACCCE’s operational command.