French regulator: Clearview must remove photos within two months

French regulator CNIL has ordered Clearview AI to stop processing photos from the internet of French citizens and the company must also delete all photos of French people within two months. Otherwise, a fine may follow.

CNIL says Clearview AI is violating two articles of the GDPR by taking photos from the Internet and applying facial recognition to them. The first is the illegal processing of personal data under Article 6, the second is not requesting permission to collect the data, a violation of Articles 12, 15 and 17.

CNIL therefore instructs the American company to stop collecting images of people residing on French territory. The company must also remove all data from Fransen. If Clearview AI does not comply, a penalty will follow. That is, for example, a fine. The company has not yet commented on the French regulator’s decision.

France is not the first country where Clearview has to remove data. Australia has already dedicated the same to the company. The United Kingdom wants to impose a fine.

Clearview AI allows users to upload a photo of someone and the software will search for the most similar face from the more than three billion people in the database and where it found that photo. For example, users can identify people on the basis of a photo in a relatively simple way.

The technology is sold to law enforcement agencies worldwide. Clearview AI has been controversial for some time and has been sued by an American civil rights organization, among others, because the software allegedly violated a privacy law of the state of Illinois.

Clear view AI. Source: CBS News