Clearview AI Fined $9.4 Million In U.K. For Illegal Facial Recognition Database

The U.K.'s privacy watchdog fined the company $9.4 million on Monday for illegally creating a database filled with billions of images taken.

According to the Information Commissioner's Office, Clearview stole more than 20 billion images from the internet and social media to create its facial recognition database.

Police and law enforcement agencies can use the app to match uploaded photos against the images in the database.

The high number of people using social media made it likely that the data from U.K. residents would be gathered without their knowledge.

Not having a lawful reason for collecting personal information, not having mechanisms in place to stop data being held indefinitely, and failing to inform people their data was being used in this way were some of the things that the U.K. data protection laws were broken by.

The personal data of U.K. residents was ordered to be deleted from the Clearview system.

The U.K.'s Information Commissioner said that Clearview's practices are unacceptable and that it is a commercial service.

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The New York Times exposed the company's massive trove of data quietly harvested online and its client roster filled with law enforcement agencies and police. Since then, the company has been accused of violating numerous privacy laws around the world, including in Europe and the U.S. The company settled a lawsuit with activist groups in Illinois for allegedly violating the state's privacy law. Regulators around the world are trying to rein in the use of artificial intelligence and mass surveillance online. There may be exceptions for police, though European politicians have floated a possible ban on the technology.

Big Number

$21.2 million. That's how much the ICO said it would fine Clearview in November. The final penalty was less than half the amount.

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The Air Force is buying glasses with facial recognition.