French Authorities Intensify Clearview AI Investigation, Sparking 20% Increase in Legal Trouble

Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition service, is facing an increase in legal trouble in France. The French data protection regulator, CNIL, has described Clearview AI as a company that collects photographs from social networks and sells access to a database of images of people through a search engine that can identify individuals based on their photographs. In October 2022, CNIL imposed a €20,000,000 fine on Clearview AI for deploying its image-scraping technology in France, arguing that constructing data templates for recognizing individuals amounted to collecting biometric data, which is unarguably personally identifiable information (PII).

CNIL has now imposed a €5,200,000 overdue penalty payment on Clearview AI, as the company failed to comply with CNIL’s requirements. Clearview AI made it unacceptably hard for French people to exercise their data protection rights, which include requesting full details of PII collected about them and deleting this data if they want. The company refused to delete data collected more than a year earlier, enabled people to request data only twice a year, and only responded to certain requests after an excessive number of requests from the same person. CNIL has ordered Clearview AI to delete all existing data on French residents and stop collecting data in the future, but the company has made no effort to comply with this ruling.

The issue at hand is highly relevant to the current state of internet security and data privacy, as Clearview AI’s practices go against the rights of individuals to control how their data is collected, processed, and used. People whose images are collected into the search engine are mostly unaware of this feature, and they do not give their consent to such processing. This situation highlights the need for stricter regulation of facial recognition technologies, as people’s biometric data are particularly sensitive, linked to our physical identity, and enable us to identify ourselves uniquely.

The French regulator’s ruling against Clearview AI sets an important precedent for the regulation of internet-based companies that collect people’s data without their knowledge or consent. It is clear that the company’s practices are in violation of GDPR compliance and demand serious legal repercussions. Although the issue of data privacy and protection may seem murky, it is critical that clear guidelines be established for the collection, processing, and use of people’s data to ensure that their rights are respected.

In conclusion, Clearview AI has found itself in legal trouble in France once again for collecting and hiding data that it should not have collected in the first place. This situation highlights the need for stricter regulation of facial recognition technologies and internet-based companies that collect people’s data without their knowledge or consent. It is vital that companies that violate GDPR compliance be penalized and held accountable for their actions.

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