Italy, Australia, France and now the United Kingdom. Legal cases and penalties are piling up for facial recognition giant Clearview AI. The jurisdictions of several countries accuse him of the illicit collection of millions of personal information. Presented at its beginnings as the symbol of innovation, the company has since had a controversial reputation that has been confirmed by court decisions.
The British authorities announced, this Monday, May 23, the condemnation of the firm to a fine of 7.5 million pounds sterling (8.85 million euros) and it is now under the obligation to delete the personal data of the British residents. Clearview AI is criticized for having in its possession more than 20 billion images gleaned from the four corners of the web without having established the slightest partnership with the sites in question or even having obtained the slightest consent from the user.
Service sold to the police and in the private sector
The company then offers its customers, including the police, a service to find online images of a person after entering a photo. “Not only does the company allow the identification” of people whose photo it has collected, “but actually monitors their behavior and offers it as a commercial service”, denounced John Edwards, the British Information Commissioner. A process opening, in recent months, in the United States and Europe, a vast debate on the morality of such phishing and laying the foundations for a reflection on the limits of privacy. The European judicial systems have decided on the level of law.
The investigation by the British authorities was carried out in collaboration with the Australian authorities. If he underlines the contribution of his ally, the United Kingdom did not have to look far since he was himself a client of the firm, for a time. According to the Technology News site, The Vergeseveral institutions such as the police, the National Crime Agency (NCA) or the Ministry of Defense have used its database.
Legal stalemate, ethical debate
On the French side, the resolution of the Cnil, policeman of the internet, resembled that taken by the country led by Boris Johnson. “People whose photos or videos are accessible on many sites and networks cannot reasonably expect that the images processed by the company will be used to feed facial recognition systems”, estimated the institution and it had demanded the immediate cessation of the activity of the American company on French soil.
However, Clearview AI has no formal obligation to follow European injunctions. The American giant defends itself by asserting that it is only subject to the legislation of the United States, a country which has never sanctioned it. And France, Italy or the United Kingdom have few means of pressure on the firm. Especially since Cleaview AI, as was once the case with the British authorities, continues to work with the American federal authorities… This decision allows at least to relaunch the ethical debate on the practices of a giant regularly jostled by American public opinion.