Clearview AI has been fined for illegally storing facial images.
The Information Commissioner’s Office slapped a £7 million fine on the controversial company - which takes images from sites such as Facebook and Instagram to maintain a global recognition database - for breaking UK data protection laws, along with orders to cease collecting and using the data of UK residents.
ICO claimed that Clear
John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner told the BBC: "The company not only enables identification of those people, but effectively monitors their behaviour and offers it as a commercial service. That is unacceptable."
They also stated that company - which is said to have over 20 billion facial images on file allowing users to upload an image to find individuals - is no longer able to operate in the UK after already being banned in France, Italy and Australia.
John added: People expect that their personal information will be respected, regardless of where in the world their data is being used."
The ICO found that Clearview breached four aspects of data protection regulations - including being not being fair and transparent, having no lawful reasons to do so and operating no process to ensure the data was not kept without an end - and giving them the current penalty, which is much less than the £17 million fine they vowed to give in November 2021.
In addition, their action comes after an “international co-operation” with Australia’s Information Commissioner.
John said: "This international co-operation 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."
