Clearview AI Fined $34M by Dutch Watchdog for 'Illegal Database'
Clearview AI Fined $34M Byby Dutch Watchdog Forfor ‘'Illegal Database’ Supporting Facial Recognition'
The Facts
US facial recognition company Clearview AI has been fined approximately $33.7M by the Netherland's data protection authority for breaching the European Union's General Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Releasing a statement on Tuesday, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) claimed that Clearview holds "an illegal database with billions of photos of faces," including Dutch citizens, which have been scraped from the internet without consent.
The Spin
Now totallingtotaling nearly $100M in European fines alone, Clearview AI continues to engage in highly illegal and unethical activity by refusing to remove EU data from their systems. Facial recognition is a surveillance tool that continues to attractgather mounting opposition, — threatening individual privacy. andWithout promotingbetter dystopianinternational controlagreements, mechanismsthere is little Europe can do to force the US company to either pay up or wipe its illegal data.
DespiteWhile widespread public outragecontroversial, Clearview AI's controversialhas businessbeen modelhighly highlightsuseful in the continuedlaw limitationsenforcement ofspace currentand cross-borderhas AIeven regulationextended to the realm of public defenders. WithoutThere internationalare agreements,documented therecases iswhere littlepeople Europehave canbeen dofound innocent of crimes thanks to forcethe firm's technology. Because of the USpotential companybenefits to eitherlaw payenforcement upand orthe wipepublic, itsassessing illegalClearview's datarecord must be viewed with context even when the current discourse focuses almost entirely on privacy issues alone.
