French authorities fined the startup Clearview AI for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ignoring prior regulator demands. TechCrunch reports this.
According to the French data protection authority CNIL, the company violated three provisions of the regulation:
- unlawful processing of personal data;
- failure to respect individuals’ rights;
- lack of cooperation with CNIL.
“Clearview AI had two months to comply with the injunctions issued in the formal notice, and to justify them to the regulator. However, the company gave no response,” the agency said.
Based on this, the CNIL chair referred the case to a restricted-access committee responsible for imposing sanctions. The latter decided to impose the maximum fine of €20 million under GDPR Article 83.
Representatives of the startup’s CEO Hoan Ton-That said they could not comply with the authorities’ demand.
“There is no reliable way to determine a person’s nationality from a publicly available online photograph, so it is impossible to delete data about French residents. Clearview AI collects information only from the web, as any other search engine such as Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo,” they said.
The company noted that it has no representation in France or the EU, and therefore its activities fall outside the GDPR.
In a statement on behalf of Ton-That, they again reiterated that Clearview AI had created facial-recognition technology with the aim of helping law enforcement authorities solve horrific crimes.
“My intentions and the intentions of my company have always been to help communities and their people live better and safer lives,” Ton-That said.
In December 2021, the French regulator delete all citizens’ data and stop collecting it.
In May 2022, the United Kingdom fined the startup $9.5 million for unlawfully extracting images of citizens’ faces from social media and the internet.
In July, Greek authorities imposed a €20 million fine on Clearview AI.
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