Clearview AI successfully appeals $9 million UK fine
The News
Clearview AI, a New York company that scraped billions of photos from the public Internet to create a facial recognition application used by thousands of law enforcement agencies law enforcement in the United States will not have to pay any fees. fine of 7.5 million pounds, or $9.1 million, imposed by the UK's main data protection agency. A British appeals court ruled this week that the agency does not have jurisdiction over how foreign law enforcement uses British citizens' data.
Privacy regulators in Australia and in Canada and Europe found that Clearview AI's collection of their citizens' data without consent violated their countries' privacy laws.Credit... Amr Alfiky for The New York TimesRegulators in Australia, Canada and Europe have found that Clearview AI's collection of their citizens' data without consent, including from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, violated their countries' privacy laws and ordered the company to remove photos of their citizens. from its database. In addition to the UK fine, data protection agencies in France, Italy and Greece each fined Clearview AI 20 million euros, or $21 million.
The fines are an existential threat to Clearview AI, which has raised just over $38 million from investors, but it could perhaps get them overturned for the same reasons as it has advanced in Britain, said James Moss, a London-based partner at Bird & Bird who specializes in data protection.
ReactionsJack Mulcaire, a lawyer for Clearview AI, said the company was “pleased” with the decision. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement that the judgment "does not remove the ability of the I.C.O. to take action against internationally based companies processing the data of people in the UK, in particular those of companies...
Clearview AI, a New York company that scraped billions of photos from the public Internet to create a facial recognition application used by thousands of law enforcement agencies law enforcement in the United States will not have to pay any fees. fine of 7.5 million pounds, or $9.1 million, imposed by the UK's main data protection agency. A British appeals court ruled this week that the agency does not have jurisdiction over how foreign law enforcement uses British citizens' data.
Privacy regulators in Australia and in Canada and Europe found that Clearview AI's collection of their citizens' data without consent violated their countries' privacy laws.Credit... Amr Alfiky for The New York TimesRegulators in Australia, Canada and Europe have found that Clearview AI's collection of their citizens' data without consent, including from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, violated their countries' privacy laws and ordered the company to remove photos of their citizens. from its database. In addition to the UK fine, data protection agencies in France, Italy and Greece each fined Clearview AI 20 million euros, or $21 million.
The fines are an existential threat to Clearview AI, which has raised just over $38 million from investors, but it could perhaps get them overturned for the same reasons as it has advanced in Britain, said James Moss, a London-based partner at Bird & Bird who specializes in data protection.
ReactionsJack Mulcaire, a lawyer for Clearview AI, said the company was “pleased” with the decision. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement that the judgment "does not remove the ability of the I.C.O. to take action against internationally based companies processing the data of people in the UK, in particular those of companies...
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