Clearview AI is a facial recognition company fined 7.5 million pounds yesterday by the UK’s data protection watchdog for a string of breaches of local privacy laws. The watchdog ordered Clearview through an enforcement notice to stop obtaining and using the personal data of UK residents. The company was utilizing information from UK residents via social media. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) asked Clearview AI to delete this data from their systems.
The UK information commissioner, John Edwards, indicated that Clearview operated on a business model unacceptable in the UK. Clearview created a database of more than 20 billion images of people worldwide from a wide array of websites and social media platforms.
Clearview AI collected information illegally, enabled identification and effective monitoring of people’s behavior, and sold this data to retailers and other companies. John Edwards said that the ICO had to protect people in the UK by fining the organization and issuing a notice to delete all the data gathered from the UK residents.
Last November, the ICO conducted its investigation with their Australian counterparts from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and fined Clearview AI 17 million pounds. According to ICO, the figure was reduced upon consideration of representations made by Clearview.
Clearview AI would cease its operations in the UK, where some of its clients included the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police. According to the company’s operations, its clients upload photos of their faces and find matches in the comprehensive database it has gathered. The system then links to the website where these images are retrieved from.
The AI company found itself at loggerheads with the UK’s data protection watchdog for the following reasons: Information from UK residents was not used fairly and transparently; the company did not have any lawful basis for collecting people’s images on social media and other websites; and failure to have a provision for stopping the data from being retained indefinitely.
Dil Bole Oberoi
