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Controversial facial recognition software developer Clearview AI has been declared illegal and slapped with a €30.5 million (roughly $50.3 million) fine by the Dutch data security watchdog.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has said the company’s database of faces was built illegally and includes the faces of Dutch people.
“Clearview has a database with more than 30 billion photos of people. Clearview scrapes these photos automatically from the internet and then converts them into a unique biometric code per face … without these people knowing this and without them having given consent for this,” said the DPA.
The DPA also ordered that if Clearview AI does not comply with its ruling, it will be forced to pay an additional €5 million.
Speaking with Reuters, Clearview AI’s chief legal officer, Jack Mulcaire, called the ruling against them “unlawful” and “unenforceable.”
“Clearview AI does not have a place of business in the Netherlands or the European Union, it does not have any customers in the Netherlands or the EU,” he said.
“[It] does not undertake any activities that would otherwise mean it is subject to the GDPR. This decision is unlawful, devoid of due process, and is unenforceable.”
Despite this, DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said that Clearview AI did not object the decision, and thus would not be able to appeal it.
The latest action by the DPA against Clearview AI comes just weeks after the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) ended its pursuit of the company for its use of Australian faces in its software.
In 2021, the OAIC ruled that the company was to halt the collection of faces it had collected through its scraping of billions of images and delete its current database within 90 days.
Originally, Clearview AI appealed the decision with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which, according to a freedom of information request last year, was based on the company’s assumption that it was not liable to Australian jurisdiction as it had prevented its scraping tools from collecting images on Australia-based servers.
However, during another scrape in January 2023, the company did not have the measures in place to ensure that Australian facial images on social media and others not based on Australian servers were not collected, thus the appeal would fail.
“All regulated entities, including organisations that fall within the jurisdiction of the Privacy Act by way of carrying on business in Australia, which engage in the practice of collecting, using or disclosing personal information in the context of artificial intelligence are required to comply with the Privacy Act,” said the OAIC.
However, before the appeal failed, Clearview AI backed down, and the original OAIC ruling stood.
Now, despite no evidence that Clearview AI carried out what the OAIC ruled, the Aussie privacy watchdog announced on Wednesday (21 August) that it would no longer be pursuing Clearview AI to ensure that it cooperated.
“I have given extensive consideration to the question of whether the OAIC should invest further resources in scrutinising the actions of Clearview AI, a company that has already been investigated by the OAIC and which has found itself the subject of regulatory investigations in at least three jurisdictions around the world as well as a class action in the United States,” said privacy commissioner Carly Kind.
“Considering all the relevant factors, I am not satisfied that further action is warranted in the particular case of Clearview AI at this time.”
The OAIC maintains that the actions of Clearview AI were illegal and that its determination still stands.
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