May 18, 2020 by Tim
ClearView AI seems to be taking drastic measures to avoid legal trouble these days. As we first reported back in March, the New York-based facial recognition firm is being sued by the State of Vermont for privacy violations. Clearview’s flagship service uses photos gleaned from Facebook and other sites to identify faces, all without the consent or knowledge of the source sites or the people being identified. According to Vermont Attorney General TJ Donavan, this is a violation of the state’s data broker and consumer protection laws. New York, Illinois, and California also have suits pending against Clearview, though Vermont’s is the only case brought by the state itself (the others are class-actions by private citizens).
Now, Clearview is apparently getting a little nervous. Last week, the firm announced they would be ending all services to private companies and only serving government entities from now on, such as police departments. Clearview previously sold its services to private corporations like Walmart, Target, and Bank of America. Clearview also announced they will no longer serve any customers in Illinois, even those affiliated with state and local governments, probably because Illinois’s 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act gives that state one of the strictest data privacy laws in the US.
With this latest move, Clearview may be trying to dissuade the courts from issuing an injunction that would bar them from collecting data until the lawsuits are resolved. Regardless, it appears that Clearview will suffer at least some consequences for its privacy violations in near future. However, when corporations, law enforcement, and Big Tech all stand to benefit from Clearview prevailing, no one should get their hopes up just yet.
