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Facial recognition software maker Clearview AI settled a lawsuit Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union, agreeing to limit its database of faces in the United States primarily to government agencies and not allow most American companies access to it.
Under the agreement submitted to an Illinois state court, Clearview will not sell its database, which it says contains more than 20 billion face photos, to most private individuals and businesses in the country. However, the company can largely sell this database to federal and state agencies.
final blow to the deal New York-based start-upDeveloped facial recognition software by scraping photos from the web and popular sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. then clear sold its software to local police departments and government agencies, including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But its technology has been deemed illegal in Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe for violating privacy laws. Clearview also faces Temporary $22.6 million fine in the UKalso a 20 million euro fine from Italy’s data protection agency.
“Clearview can no longer treat people’s unique biometric identifiers as an unlimited source of profit,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, ACLU’s deputy director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “Other companies would be wise to consider, and other states should follow Illinois’ lead in enacting strong biometric privacy laws.”
First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams, who was hired by Clearview to defend the company’s right to collect publicly available information and make it searchable, said the company is “gratified to leave this lawsuit behind”.
“To avoid a protracted, costly and distracting legal dispute with the ACLU and others, Clearview AI has agreed to continue to discontinue its services to law enforcement in Illinois for a period of time,” he said.
ACLU sued On behalf of groups representing victims of domestic violence, undocumented immigrants and sex workers in May 2020. The group accused Clearview of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state law that prohibits private entities from using body identifiers, including algorithmic maps of citizens’ faces, without their consent.
“This is a huge win for the most vulnerable people in Illinois,” said Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, the plaintiff in the lawsuit and head of Mujeres Latinas en Acción, which defends victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. “For many Latinos who are undocumented and have low levels of IT or social media literacy, not understanding how technology can be used against you is a huge challenge.”
One of Clearview’s sales methods was to offer free trials to potential customers. private businesses, government employees and police officers. Under the deal, the company will have a more formal process for trial accounts, ensuring that individual police officers get permission from their employers to use the facial recognition app.
Clearview is also prohibited from selling to any Illinois-based entity, private or public, for five years as part of the agreement. Mr. Wessler said he could then continue to do business with local or state law enforcement in the state.
As a notable exception, Clearview will be able to continue to provide its database to US banks and financial institutions under BIPA.
The agreement does not mean that Clearview cannot sell any products to companies. It will be able to continue selling its facial recognition algorithm to companies without a database of 20 billion images. Its algorithm helps match people’s faces with any database a customer provides.
As part of the settlement, Clearview accepted no liability and agreed to pay the plaintiffs $250,000 in attorneys’ fees. The agreement is subject to the approval of an Illinois state judge.
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