France Latest To Slap Clearview AI With Order To Delete Data (techcrunch.com) 28
Controversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI, which has amassed a database of some 10 billion images by scraping selfies off the Internet so it can sell an identity-matching service to law enforcement, has been hit with another order to delete people's data. From a report: France's privacy watchdog said today that Clearview has breached Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In an announcement of the breach finding, the CNIL also gives Clearview formal notice to stop its "unlawful processing" and says it must delete user data within two months. The watchdog is acting on complaints against Clearview received since May 2020. The US company does not have an established base in the EU -- meaning its business is open to regulatory action across the EU, by any of the bloc's data protection supervisors. So while the CNIL's order only applies to data it holds on people from French territories -- which the CNIL estimates covers "several" tens of millions of Internet users -- more such orders are likely from other EU agencies.
Puzzling Phrase (Score:5, Interesting)
The US company does not have an established base in the EU -- meaning its business is open to regulatory action across the EU
Reading that as because they don't have a base in France, it means that any region in the EU can complain...
But if the company has no base anywhere in the EU, what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
Re: (Score:2)
what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
What does it matter if they DO "comply"? How can anybody possibly make sure that all copies of the data are destroyed? I doubt whether Clearview itself could do that reliably, even if they wanted to. And they certainly don't want to; so they may make a show of wiping or destroying some disks, but you can be sure that they'll still have the data tucked away somewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
You just send clearview a few photos of Frenchmen and ask if they can be identified.
Re: (Score:1)
Frog / Not Frog
Re: (Score:2)
It seems to be a typo. There is no legal mechanism for sovereign to compel compliance with its laws outside its borders, barring some cases of international law allowing cross-border enforcement.
This subject is novel enough for me to be fairly certain that there is no such agreement in place between France and US. Not so much because of lack of reasons to have one as because the subject of wide sweeping facial recognition is too novel, and it simply hasn't been put on the tables of relevant people yet.
Re:Puzzling Phrase (Score:4, Interesting)
The real question is why the USA allows crap like this.
Does nobody over there care about anything at all?
Re: (Score:3)
Because we believe that when people freely share data with the world, it doesn't make any sense for the state to put restrictions on it that the individuals didn't?
Re: (Score:2)
Because we believe that when people freely share data with the world, it doesn't make any sense for the state to put restrictions on it that the individuals didn't?
No kidding! Set your social media accounts to where only your friends can see anything.
That way everyone else including Clearview doesn't have to see your stupid duck-lips selfies!
Re: (Score:2)
Because we believe that when people freely share data with the world, it doesn't make any sense for the state to put restrictions on it that the individuals didn't?
a) How many of those individuals had the expectation that the government would be grabbing all that info and using it against them?
b) How many of those individuals would allow government photographers to take pictures of them as they walked past?
Naivety isn't something that should be exploited for profit.
Re: (Score:2)
First of all, there are cultural differences. US tends to represent the anglosphere type of culture, where personal freedom and personal responsibility are the primary solutions, and state only comes in should those fail. Whereas French represent a fundamentally different view that state has a more active role to play in such interactions.
Also it's a novel issue, and functional political systems have inertia built into them to limit damage caused by bad political trends. Byproduct of that is that such a sys
Re: (Score:2)
Sure there is. It is called "international treaties". Relevant here are fair-harbor provisions, for example, were a country in which Clearview does have representation is allowed to process data from EU citizens as long as certain legal limitations are respected.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sad you didn't bring in many other equally irrelevant international treaties, like various WTO treaties such as GATT.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sad you didn't bring in many other equally irrelevant international treaties, like various WTO treaties such as GATT.
That is because you are stupid and did not understand the implications of what I wrote. Oh, and it is "safe harbor", but that was clear from the description I added.
Re: (Score:2)
For someone who thinks himself smart, you failed to note the reasoning as you why it is asked to delete the data.
Re: (Score:2)
> what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
Block their site.
> because they don't have a base in France
Not that hard to create a "base". Just rent a suite in a run-down low-rent area and staff it with tier-1 help-deskers.
Re: (Score:1)
> what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
Block their site.
I know the EU leftist elites are salivating at the prospect and sooner or later they are going to push it through (to stop "dem fascists" of course, as always), but we do not (yet) have a EU-wide firewall that can block sites.
Re: (Score:1)
Leftists? Lefties like to block rightie material and righties like to block lefty material. Extremists of anything do that.
Generic Response is Generic (Score:1)
Block their site.
Block what exactly? Remember this company sells services to law enforcement, where they use the facial recognition engined they have trained from public photos to produce some results.
Since the company has no presence in the EU, that would mean no EU companies are using the service already. So what would you "block"?
The closest approximation to a block would be, blocking access to any public social media from an EU citizen. So how would that work in practice, again the company has no ba
Re: (Score:2)
what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
They can stop the export of French Fries to the USA. That'll hurt a lot.
They could also ask for the Statue of Liberty back. That was made in France, not the USA, as many Americans seem to believe.
Re: (Score:2)
But if the company has no base anywhere in the EU, what can the EU actually do about it if they do not comply?
Sure. They can forbid it to do business in the EU and then there is still international law and treaties.
Re: (Score:1)
if they don't comply, I guess they could be blacklisted, local companies would not be allowed to purchase biometrics services from them. This assumes they collected the pictures with intent to fine tune a product to recognize faces of EU people and sell that as a service.
Re: (Score:2)
Economically, not much.
But it means any evidence Claarview AI was used for is invalid - if you try to extradite someone and they're in France, Canada, Australia or other countries, any evidence you obtained via Clearview AI is discarded, including derived evidence (fruit of a poisoned tree).
So if you have a photo of someone, you use Clearview AI to identify them, and thus issue search warrants, thos
Re: (Score:2)
France can order all it wants. (Score:4, Interesting)
Imagine (Score:1)