“At the same time, it sends a clear message to law enforcement authorities working with companies of this kind that such practices are illegal and grossly violate the rights of data subjects.”Ĭlearview AI might still face further financial penalties in the European Union. “The €20 million fine imposed by the DPA today is another strong signal against intrusive business models of companies that seek to make money through the illegal processing of personal data,” the group said. In Greece, Homo Digitalis issued a statement on the HDPA’s action. Throughout the European Union, human rights organizations have worked together to bring forward complaints against Clearview AI to relevant regulators. Therefore, their personal data is being collected and sold without their knowledge or consent. The EU DPAs contend images belonging to their residents are among that database and accessible to customers in other countries. The system is reported to include a database of more than 20 billion images that Clearview AI claims to have taken from various social media platforms and other websites where the information is publicly available. It then links to where the photos appeared. U.S.-based Clearview AI’s app allows users to upload an image of an individual’s face and match it to photos of that person’s face collected from the internet. “Clearview AI does not have a place of business in Greece or the EU, it does not have any customers in Greece or the EU, its product has never been used in Greece, and does not undertake any activities that would otherwise mean it is subject to the GDPR,” said Chief Executive Hoan Ton-That in an emailed statement. The company’s response to the HDPA fine struck a similar tone. In each case, Clearview AI responded it does not do business in the European Union and is not subject to the GDPR. $9.4 million) regarding the same practices on U.K. $22 million) for unlawfully processing the data of Italian citizens, while the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office in May announced a penalty of more than 7.5 million pounds (then-U.S. In February, Italy’s DPA, Garante, fined the company €20 million (then-U.S. The decision (in Greek) against Clearview AI by the HDPA follows similar actions in Italy and the United Kingdom earlier this year. The enforcement action also included a ban on Clearview AI’s collection of personal data from data subjects in Greece and required it to delete any data it has already collected from the country’s residents. $19.9 million)-a record in the country-for unlawfully processing the biometric data of Greek citizens. The HDPA fined the company 20 million euros (U.S. July 13: Human rights compliance management.The company has said blocking it from using publicly-available images amounted to censorship. read moreĬritics of Clearview AI have said its technology violated people's privacy. lawsuit that accused it of collecting people's photos without permission. The company denied the breaches at the time.ĭenis did not elaborate on the extent of the potential fine that the regulator could issue.Ĭlearview agreed earlier this week to restrictions on how businesses can use its database of billions of facial images, to resolve a U.S. Under EU law, the regulatory framework of the GDPR can apply in some cases where data of EU-based users of internet services are tracked and processed, even if the provider has no physical presence inside the bloc.ĬNIL said in December that the software company, which is used as a search engine for faces to help law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their investigations, failed to ask for the prior consent of those whose images it collected online. In a formal demand disclosed last December, the regulator said Clearview's collection of publicly-available facial images on social media and the internet breached European Union rules on data privacy, known as GDPR. "I am seriously thinking about it," Marie-Laure Denis said, after presenting CNIL's annual report.Ī spokesperson for the startup was not immediately available for comment. The start of a formal penalty process would indicate that CNIL suspected Clearview of failing to comply with its order within the two-month deadline it had set. PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - The head of France's data privacy said on Wednesday she was considering triggering the process of fining U.S.-based Clearview AI, a facial recognition company the regulator had ordered to stop amassing data from people based in the country.
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