The developer of the facial recognition system Clearview AI согласилась to permanently suspend the sale of its biometric database to private companies in the United States.
BREAKING: Today we reached a settlement with Clearview AI — a secretive face surveillance company claiming to have captured more than ten billion faceprints from people’s online photos across the globe.
This is a huge win.
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 9, 2022
The company made the decision as part of a two-year legal dispute with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In May 2020, rights advocates accused the startup of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). According to the document, companies must obtain consent before collecting such data as fingerprints, facial photographs and iris scans. Otherwise users have the right to sue.
“BIPA is designed to curb precisely such broad surveillance enabled by the Clearview app… This should send a strong signal to the legislatures of other states,”
said the ACLU, which helped draft BIPA.
In addition to the nationwide ban on sales to private individuals, Clearview will not offer its services to law enforcement in Illinois for five years. Federal agencies, state and local law enforcement outside the state will not be affected.
Additionally, Clearview must discontinue support for the free trial version of the program for police, create an opt-out page for Illinois residents and spend $50,000 on advertising it.
Before the settlement comes into force it must be approved by a federal judge.
In March, the Italian regulator fined Clearview AI €20 million.
In December 2021, authorities in France ordered the notoriously controversial startup delete citizens’ data.
In the same month, the United Kingdom fined Clearview AI $22.6 million for illegal data collection.
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