Clearview AI Fined $33M For Illegal Facial Recognition Data

Technology has long played an important role in intelligence and investigative services and in identifying and detecting criminals. As new tools are invented, they are infused to enhance law enforcement efforts.

One such technology includes facial recognition services, which use algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and other technologies to identify people through a database of faces and other biological markers.

Clearview AI, a revolutionary, all-in-one, facial recognition platform designed to support federal, state and local law enforcement agencies is one such company.

While the company claims to use only publicly available images, it has been flagged by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) for having violated key privacy laws in the European Union (EU), coming with strict ramifications for the company.

So, what did the data protection agency say about the facial recognition company’s violations? Let’s explore!

What Was Clearview AI Pulled Up For?

Through a press release statement published on its website, the Dutch DPA Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens revealed that it has imposed a fine of €30.5 million or $33.47 million on Clearview AI, an American facial recognition company.
The fine comes as the DPA finds the AI company illegally built a database of billions of photos of faces, including that of Dutch people.
Ahead of this, the agency also orders a penalty of up to €5.1 million or $5.63 million subject to non-compliance.
The agency also warned that using Clearview’s services is prohibited.
Clearview AI offers facial recognition services to intelligence and investigative agencies, acting as a search engine leveraging over 50 billion publicly available images.
Its platform enables users to identify people shown in images through automatically scraped photos from the internet, which are then converted into unique biometric codes per face.
As per the Dutch agency, this is done “without these people knowing this and without them having given consent for this.”
As per the facial recognition company, these services are provided to intelligence and investigative agencies outside the European Union (EU) only.
While the Dutch DPA’s chairman, Aleid Wolfsen, acknowledged the importance of the technology in detecting criminals, he felt the method should be used by official authorities and not a commercial business.
The Dutch DPA states that the company violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law on several points and has illegally built a database with photos.
While Clearview is supposed to inform people who are in the database asking about what data the company possesses, it doesn’t cooperate with such requests.

Source

What Did The Dutch Data Protection Authority Chairman Say?

Through the release, Dutch DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said, “Facial recognition is a highly intrusive technology, that you cannot simply unleash on anyone in the world.”
“If there is a photo of you on the Internet – and doesn't that apply to all of us? – then you can end up in the database of Clearview and be tracked. This is not a doom scenario from a scary film. Nor is it something that could only be done in China.”
“Clearview breaks the law, and this makes using the services of Clearview illegal. Dutch organizations that use Clearview may therefore expect hefty fines from the Dutch DPA.”
“Such [a] company cannot continue to violate the rights of Europeans and get away with it. Certainly not in this serious manner and on this massive scale. We are now going to investigate if we can hold the management of the company personally liable and fine them for directing those violations.”
“That liability already exists if directors know that the GDPR is being violated, have the authority to stop that, but omit to do so, and in this way consciously accept those violations.”

Just a few days ago, the Dutch DPA imposed a fine of €290 million or $320 million on Uber for transferring personal data of European taxi drivers to the United States (US), while failing to appropriately safeguard the data.

Do you think the Dutch DPA is correct in fining Clearview AI or is the facial recognition company’s services that scrapes public photos a fair trade for nabbing criminals?

Let us know in the comments below!

First published on Tue, Sep 3, 2024

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)Emerging Technology Artificial Intelligence AI Generative Artificial Intelligence Generative AI GenAI Clearview AI Dutch Data Protection DPA Illegal Data Collection Facial Recognition Illegal Database Violation

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