Facial Recognition Software Is Subject of a New Lawsuit over Alleged Privacy Violations

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court against Clearview AI, a New York-based facial recognition technology company that scrapes billions of publicly available images of individuals from the internet without their knowledge or consent. Clearview’s customers, including law enforcement and private businesses, use the company’s database to search for persons of interest using their images.

The ACLU contends that that the company’s technology violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).  The ACLU claims that the company collected “faceprints,” a biometric identifier that is used to discern or verify an individual’s identity, without the pictured individuals’ consent.  The BIPA requires businesses to get consent for collecting biometric information. They must also provide a written explanation of the use of the data and its period of retention.

According to the ACLU’s complaint, the capture and storage of “faceprints” leaves people vulnerable to data breaches, identify theft, as well as surveillance “by making it possible to instantaneously identify everyone at a protest or political rally, a house of worship, a domestic violence shelter, an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and more.”

Earlier this year, the Vermont Attorney General charged that the company had collected “billions of photos off the internet by screen scraping, applying artificial intelligence technology, biometric data to these photos and selling them, including photos of Vermonters’ and their children without [their] consent” in violation of the state’s consumer protection and data broker statutes.

Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other technology companies have recently requested that Clearview AI stop using the photos collected from their platforms and the New Jersey Attorney General barred state police from using the company’s product.

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