UK data watchdog has fined a facial recognition company সংগ্রহ 7.5 million for collecting images of people from social media platforms and the web to add them to a global database.
The US-based Clearview AI has been instructed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to delete data from UK residents. Clearview has collected more than 20 billion images and data of human faces from screwing Facebook, other social media companies and the web.
John Edwards, the UK’s information commissioner, said Clearview’s business model was “unacceptable”.
Clearview AI Inc has collected multiple images of people from around the world, including the UK, from various websites and social media platforms, creating a database of over 20 billion images.
“The company not only enables the identification of those individuals, but also effectively monitors their behavior and offers it as a commercial service. This is unacceptable. That’s why we have worked to protect people in the UK by issuing fines and an enforcement notice to the company,” he said.
The ICO, which conducted the investigation in conjunction with the office of its Australian counterpart, the Australian Information Commissioner, announced last November a “temporary” intention to fine Clearview 17 17 million. Announcing its provisional decision, the ICO said Clearview’s technology had been provided to UK law enforcement agencies on a “free trial basis”, although that trial had been closed.
Clearview’s services are no longer offered in the UK, but the ICO said Monday that it still has overseas customers and is still using UK resident data.
ClearView customers can upload a photo of a person to the company’s app, which is then checked against a database. The app then provides a list of images considered as customer-provided images, along with a link to the website where the image came from.
The ICO said Clearview violated UK data protection laws in a number of ways, including: failing to use UK residents’ information in a fair and transparent manner; Failure to have a valid reason for collecting that information; And failing to establish a mechanism to stop data retention indefinitely. It added that ClearView asked people for additional information, including photos, when they contacted the company to find out if they were in the database. The ICO said it had stopped people from wishing to object to their presence in the database.
Last week Clearview agreed to permanently suspend access to its face database to private businesses or individuals around the United States. The New York-based company will offer its services to federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies and government contractors outside of Illinois where the lawsuit was filed.
