The ACLU has filed a lawsuit in Illinois against facial recognition firm Clearview AI.
Clearview AI made headlines when it was discovered the firm was scraping millions of websites, including the major social media platforms, to amass a database of billions of photos to pair with its facial recognition software. The company claimed it only made its service available to law enforcement and security personnel, but it was later discovered that was a lie. The company had also let friends and investors use its software for personal interests.
In addition, Clearview has expanded internationally, including making deals with authoritarian regimes. To make matters even worse, there has been at least one instance where the company appeared to be monitoring law enforcement searches and using that information to dissuade police from talking with the press about Clearview.
The ACLU has had enough and filed a lawsuit in the state of Illinois. Illinois is the perfect state to file the suit in, as it has strict Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) legislation that has already been successfully used in court.
In its lawsuit, the ACLU and companies joining it, “are asking the court to order Clearview to delete faceprints gathered from Illinois residents without their consent and cease capturing new faceprints unless they comply with BIPA consent procedures. Until such remedies are implemented, Clearview’s egregious violations of privacy pose a disastrous threat and affront to our rights.”
Here’s to hoping the ACLU is successful in suing Clearview AI into oblivion.