The Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) has fined Clearview AI 20 million euros. The tech company must stop collecting and processing data from men and women in France. All data already collected by the company must be deleted. The French regulator announced the fine through a press release (1).
Clearview AI is a company that sells facial recognition technology to investigative and enforcement agencies. The American technology company has the largest database of facial profiles in the world. It reportedly contains more than 20 billion images. Clearview aims to expand its face database to one hundred billion faces within now and a year. This will make it possible, at least in theory, to identify every person on earth.
To build this database, Clearview uses scraping software. That is a patented facial recognition program that automatically visits public sources on the Internet and collects profile photos with associated information. Then you have to think of social media (2) and personal Web sites.
Clearview's facial recognition technology is controversial, both in Europe and abroad. When it was rumored that the Dutch police had used Clearview's services dozens of times, D66 and GroenLinks (3) raised questions about it. Then-Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker denied that this was the case (4). However, he could not guarantee that an individual police officer had visited the company's website and asked some questions. "That does not mean that the system was operationally deployed," the minister said.
CNIL writes that it received complaints from citizens about Clearview AI in May 2020. In response, the French regulator launched an investigation. The privacy watchdog worked with several European regulators. That led to the conclusion that the technology company violated several rules. First, Clearview collected biometric data from citizens without a legal basis, in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG). In addition, the company did not remind citizens that they could have their data removed from the database.
CNIL officially reprimanded Clearview and ordered it to delete all data collected on French men and women. The tech company was also told to honor citizens' requests to be removed from the database. Clearview did not respond to this request. Therefore, the French regulator decided to impose a €20 million fine on the company.
If Clearview decides not to comply with the French regulator's order within two months, it risks a fine of 100,000 euros per day. That amount is in addition to the €20 million fine.
This is not the first fine imposed on Clearview in Europe. Italian regulator GPDP fined the company €20 million in March this year (5). The privacy watchdog concluded that the company unlawfully collected and processed biometric and location data of Italian citizens. The company also violated European privacy laws and was not open and honest about its data collection practices.
In May, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) handed out a fine of more than 7.5 million pounds (6), which converts to 8.9 million euros. The British regulator ruled that Clearview collected photos of British men and women without explicit consent. It also ordered the technology company to remove all profiles of British citizens from its database. Last July, the Greek data protection authority DPA issued a fine of 20 million euros (7) for collecting and processing data of Greek citizens without consent. An investigation against Clearview is currently ongoing in Austria.
Regulators from Belgium (8), Sweden, Germany, Canada and Australia previously ordered Clearview to stop collecting photos of citizens and delete photos in its database.
https://www.cnil.fr/fr/reconnaissance-faciale-sanction-de-20-millions-deuros-lencontre-de-clearview-ai
https://www.vpngids.nl/privacy/social-media/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/kamer-wil-opheldering-over-gebruik-gezichtsherkenningssoftware-door-politie/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/kabinet-houdt-vol-politie-heeft-nooit-software-clearview-ai-gebruikt/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/italiaanse-toezichthouder-geeft-clearview-boete-van-20-miljoen-euro/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/italiaanse-toezichthouder-geeft-clearview-boete-van-20-miljoen-euro/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/opnieuw-miljoenenboete-voor-clearview/
https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/clearview-moet-ook-belgische-gezichten-uit-database-verwijderen/
