Security News > 2022 > October > Clearview AI image-scraping face recognition service hit with €20m fine in France
Clearview AI does not have a legitimate interest in collecting and using this data either, particularly given the intrusive and massive nature of the process, which makes it possible to retrieve the images present on the Internet of several tens of millions of Internet users in France.
The seriousness of this breach led the CNIL chair to order Clearview AI to cease, for lack of a legal basis, the collection and use of data from people on French territory, in the context of the operation of the facial recognition software it markets.
As we said back in May 2022, when the UK reported that it would be fining Clearview AI about £7,500,000 and ordering the company not to collect data on UK redidents any more, "How this will be policed, let alone enforced, is unclear."
We may be about to find how the company will be policed in the future, with CNIL losing patience with Clearview AI for not comlying with its ruling to stop collecting the biometric data of French people.
Following a formal notice which remained unaddressed, the CNIL imposed a penalty of 20 million Euros and ordered CLEARVIEW AI to stop collecting and using data on individuals in France without a legal basis and to delete the data already collected.
Is Clearview AI really providing a beneficial and socially acceptable service to law enforcement?