Clearview has been charged with illegally scanning social media users’ faces

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Civil rights organization American Civil Liberties Union has sued Clearview AI with claims that the company has violated an Illinois state privacy law by scanning faces of social media users for its biometric software.

According to the ACLU, Clearview AI has covertly collected billions of facial scans from social media users. “The company secretly captured the facial prints without our knowledge and without our consent, using selfies to photos of birthday parties and weddings,” the organization said in a statement.

It has been filed with the Illinois State Court for alleged violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. That law states that citizens in the state must be notified and given written consent if companies want to record, collect or obtain their biometric properties such as a fingerprint or facial scan.

Earlier this year, the New York Times reported on Clearview AI’s practices. The company is said to have amassed a database of billions of photos by scraping social media services. On that basis, the company would offer a biometric service, where customers can upload a photo and then find out personal data such as the name and place of residence of the person in the photo.

Several American police departments would use the service and Clearview would also have customers in the Benelux. Clearview invoked freedom of expression and said that it can look at photos on sites just like other internet users. However, according to the ACLU, the company is not allowed to perform facial scans. “If allowed, Clearview destroys our rights to anonymity and privacy and the security they guarantee. People can change their names and addresses to hide their whereabouts and identities from attackers, but not their faces.”

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