The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK has announced that it has fined Clearview AI Inc £7,552,880 for privacy violations in the UK.
The company collected images of people online from social media and other websites and then used these images without people’s consent.
“Clearview AI Inc has collected multiple images of people all over the world, including in the UK, from a variety of websites and social media platforms, creating a database with more than 20 billion images. The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable. That is why we have acted to protect people in the UK by both fining the company and issuing an enforcement notice.
“People expect that their personal information will be respected, regardless of where in the world their data is being used. That is why global companies need international enforcement. Working with colleagues around the world helped us take this action and protect people from such intrusive activity.
“This international cooperation is essential to protect people’s privacy rights in 2022. That means working with regulators in other countries, as we did in this case with our Australian colleagues. And it means working with regulators in Europe, which is why I am meeting them in Brussels this week so we can collaborate to tackle global privacy harms.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office has said that these 20 billion images would contain a larger number of UK residents and this is why Clearview AI has been fined.
The company no longer offers this service in the UK, but it does in other countries, this is why they have been fined, you can find out more details at the link below.
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Image Credit: Chris Yang
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