![]() ![]() “A face is not something you can possibly hide in public, unless you walk out of your house with a bag on your head.”įrustration is growing in Europe that face search engines can keep operating in blatant defiance of regulators’ orders to stop processing EU faces. A name is something you can hide in public,” says Lucie Audibert, a lawyer at Privacy International. Clearview is no longer the only company monetizing people’s faces.īut the difference between searching with a name and searching with a face is crucial, argue privacy activists. But as Europe’s regulators grapple with how to make the company heed their reprimands, the problem is mushrooming. (France said it could not disclose details about the payment, due to privacy rules). Yet Clearview has not removed EU faces from its platform, and similar fines issued by regulators in Italy and Greece remain unpaid. In October, the French data protection authority became the third EU regulator to fine Clearview 20 million euros ($19 million) for violating European privacy rules. Since Marx filed his complaint, other people and privacy groups across Europe have done the same. The region might boast the world's strictest privacy laws, but European regulators, including in Hamburg, are struggling to enforce them. “That is too slow, even if you take into account that it’s the first case of its kind.”Īcross Europe, millions of people’s faces are appearing in search engines operated by companies like Clearview. “It’s almost been two and a half years since I complained about ClearView AI, and the case is still open,” says Marx, who works as a security researcher at the IT security company Security Research Labs. A spokesperson for the regulator told WIRED that the case had been closed, but Marx says he has not been notified of the outcome. That complaint was the first filed against Clearview in Europe, but it’s still unclear whether the case has been resolved. So in February 2020 he filed a complaint with his local privacy regulator in Hamburg. To him, it was obvious that Clearview was violating Europe’s privacy law, the GDPR, by using his face, or biometric data, without his knowledge or permission. “I’m no longer in control of what people do with my data,” he says. We expect a similar decision in Austria soon.Marx says Clearview’s revelation was a wake-up call. This decision follows the decision by the French authority on Clearview in December 2021, as well as the decision by the Italian DPA: also here, the authority prohibited the collection and processing of data in Italy. The Greek authority also ordered Clearview to appoint a representative in the EU, to enable EU citizens to exercise their rights more easily and so regulators have a contact person in the EU. Not only would Clearview now have to delete all hitherto collected images of Greek citizens, but also the biometric information that is needed to search for a specific face. Collecting images for a biometric search engine is illegal. The data processing had no legal basis and there is a lack of transparency concerning the processing operations. and does not offer its services in Greece or the EU. The ruling is clear: the GDPR is applicable because Clearview AI uses its software to monitor the behavior of people in Greece, even though the company is based in the U.S. Complaints have been filed with data protection authorities in France, Austria, Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom.Ĭlear ban. ![]() The images for this come from social media accounts and other online sources. The company claims to have "the largest known database of more than 10 billion facial images" and is aiming to reach 100 billion within the next year to make almost every person worldwide identifiable. ![]() ![]() An alliance of organizations, including noyb, Privacy International (PI), Hermes Center, and Homo Digitalis, filed a series of complaints against Clearview AI Inc. is no longer allowed to process biometric data on individuals in Greece and must delete all existing data.Ĭomplaints in five countries. The company that sells facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The Greek data protection authority has fined the company Clearview AI €20 million. €20 million fine for Clearview AI in Greece ![]()
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