The UK's data protection watchdog confirmed a penalty for the controversial facial recognition company, and announced a fine of over 7 million dollars.
An enforcement notice has been issued by the watchdog, telling Clearview to stop obtaining and using the personal data of UK residents that is publicly available on the internet, and to remove the information of UK residents from its systems.
The US company has amassed a database of 20 billion facial images by taking data off the public internet, such as from social media services, to create an online database that it uses to power an artificial intelligence-based identity-matching service which it sells to entities such as law enforcement. The problem is that Clearview has never asked individuals if they can use their selfies for that. In many countries it has been found in violation of privacy laws.
The UK's information commissioner said in a statement:
“Clearview AI Inc has collected multiple images of people all over the world, including in the UK, from a variety of websites and social media platforms, creating a database with more than 20 billion images. The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable. That is why we have acted to protect people in the UK by both fining the company and issuing an enforcement notice.
“People expect that their personal information will be respected, regardless of where in the world their data is being used. That is why global companies need international enforcement. Working with colleagues around the world helped us take this action and protect people from such intrusive activity.
“This international cooperation is essential to protect people’s privacy rights in 2022. That means working with regulators in other countries, as we did in this case with our Australian colleagues. And it means working with regulators in Europe, which is why I am meeting them in Brussels this week so we can collaborate to tackle global privacy harms.”
The high number of UK internet and social media users is likely to include a substantial amount of data from UK residents, which has been gathered without their knowledge, according to the UK watchdog.
The company still uses personal data of UK residents even though it no longer offers services in the UK.
NEW: We’ve fined Clearview AI Inc more than £7.5m for using images of people in the UK, and elsewhere, that were collected from the web and social media to create a global online database that could be used for facial recognition.
Read our press release: https://t.co/VCnmjjcM8D pic.twitter.com/88mO1mUjmq
The Information Commissioner's Office posted on May 23, 2022.
The Information Commissioner's Office warned the US-based company that it could be fined if it continued to process UK citizens' data.
It confirmed the findings of the preliminary enforcement that found Clearview in violation of a string of legal requirements.
The data collector failed to have a lawful basis for collecting people's information and failed to use people's information in a way that was fair and transparent.
The UK sanction was commented on by Clearview.
The level of fine is considerably lower than the one announced by the ICO last fall. We have asked the regulator about the reduction, but the exact amount is irrelevant if it refuses to pay.
If a foreign entity doesn't cooperate or lack a local representative, an order can be enforced against them.
It is possible that the local offices would be answerable to regulators in those markets, which would limit the ability of Clearview to expand internationally.
The UK penalty is not the first international sanction for Clearview. Australia's privacy watchdog ordered the company to stop processing citizens' data and destroy any info it held last year after the UK investigation. The company has been sanctioned by France and Canada. Italy's data protection regulator fined Clearview in March.
The American Civil Liberties Union had accused Clearview of breaching an Illinois law that banned the use of individuals in its settlement.
The terms of the settlement appear to prohibit Clearview from selling or giving away access to its facial recognition database to private companies and individuals in the US, although an exception for government contractors was included.
The settlement also requires Clearview to maintain an opt-out system to allow Illinois residents to block their likeness from its facial search results, and to end a controversial practice of providing free trials to police officers if those individuals don't get approval through their departments to test.
It was thought that it would respond by selling its algorithm to private companies in the US, instead of making money from its database of selfies.
Clearview AI banned from selling its facial recognition software to most US companies
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