Facial recognition: US startup Clearview AI fined €30.5 million in the Netherlands for “illegal” image collection

Unsplash

A new fine for Clearview AI. The American facial recognition company was fined 30.5 million euros by the Dutch privacy regulator on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, for creating an illegal database containing more than 30 billion photos of people, without their permission. Clearview AI defends itself by saying that it only offers its services … to intelligence and investigation agencies outside the European Union (EU) … “That’s bad enough,” insists the Dutch authority.    

Founded in 2017 and initially funded by Peter Thiel, billionaire and member of the board of directors of Facebook, Clearview AI is an American startup specializing in facial recognition, mainly intended for government agencies and law enforcement. His software uses an algorithm to compare faces to a database of tens of billions of images, retrieved, according to him, from the web.  

Several sanctions in France and elsewhere 

Contrary to its official communication, private companies such as Walmart or the National Basketball Association have called upon its services, which Clearview AI has also offered to European, South American countries or governments in the Middle East.    

A New York Times investigation in 2020 revealed that the tool was very popular among local police forces in the United States. More than 600 services used this software, even prompting Twitter, Google or YouTube to ask Clearview AI to stop collecting images of people without their knowledge. “Google can extract information from all different websites. So if it's public, it could be in Google's search engine, it could be in ours too,” defended Hoan Ton-That, founder of the startup.  

Not enough to convince several countries, starting with France. In October 2022, the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) fined Clearview AI €20 million for illegal processing of personal data, failure to respect the rights of individuals, and failure to cooperate with the regulatory authority. Clearview AI was ordered to stop collecting and processing data from individuals residing in France without a legal basis and to delete data already collected. In April 2023, an additional penalty of €5.2 million was imposed for non-compliance with the initial order. 

Before Paris, Canberra tried the US company in 2020 for breaching Australian privacy law for collecting facial images without consent, which constitutes the collection of sensitive information. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) ​​determined that Clearview AI had an “Australian nexus” and was therefore subject to Australian privacy law, despite having no offices or servers in Australia. 

“30 billion photos of people” collected without their permission   

A new fine has been added to this highly controversial tool. The Dutch privacy regulator (AP) imposed a new fine on Clearview AI on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, in the amount of 30.5 million euros. “Clearview has a database containing more than 30 billion photos of people without these people’s knowledge and without their permission,” the authority denounced. Amsterdam justified its penalty by the fact that “photos of Dutch people are in the illegal database.” 

AP also ordered the American startup to stop its practices, threatening it with a maximum penalty of 5.1 million euros in addition to the fine. “Facial recognition is a very radical technology, which cannot simply be made accessible to everyone,” and even less so by commercial companies, explains Aleid Wolfsen, chairman of the regulator, in a press release.   

The startup defends itself by claiming that it provides services only to law enforcement and intelligence agencies outside the EU, which is “bad enough,” retorts the same lawyer. 

“We need to draw a very clear line when it comes to the improper use of this type of technology,” he warned. “Of course, facial recognition can help with security and criminal investigations by government agencies. But it certainly should not be handled by a commercial company,” he wrote.  

For AP, “Clearview is breaking the law and therefore using Clearview’s services is illegal. Dutch organizations that use Clearview can therefore expect heavy fines,” warns Aleid Wolfsen.  

The same Dutch authority notes that despite the multiple sanctions imposed on Clearview AI, including in the United Kingdom and Italy, “the company does not seem to change its behavior.”

You liked the article ? It mobilized our editorial staff, which lives only on your donations.
Information has a cost, especially since competition from subsidized editorial offices requires increased rigor and professionalism.

With your support, France-Soir will continue to offer its articles for free  because we believe that everyone should have access to free and independent information to form their own opinion.

You are the sine qua non condition for our existence, support us so that France-Soir remains the French media that allows the most legitimate people to express themselves.