On Wednesday, an Australian regulator ordered Clearview AI Inc, a provider of facial recognition software based in the United States, to cease gathering photographs from websites and destroy data gathered in the nation following an inquiry that determined the firm violated privacy regulations.
Clearview AI, a privately held company that compares photos scraped from social media websites to a database of billions of images, collected sensitive information about Australians without their consent and without verifying the accuracy of its matches, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner said.
The report demonstrates an increasing regulatory pushback against the contentious technology, which is currently being utilized or evaluated by law enforcement organizations worldwide.
In June, a Canadian regulator determined that the country's police department violated the law by utilizing Clearview's technology until it was outlawed.
The OAIC is conducting an investigation into the Australian Federal Police in connection with a Clearview software experiment that took place between October 2019 and March 2020. The office stated on Wednesday that the probe was still ongoing.
The actions of the New York-headquartered company fell "far short of Australians' expectations" and posed a "significant risk of harm to individuals, including vulnerable groups such as children and victims of crime whose images can be searched in Clearview AI's database," Information Commissioner Angelene Falk said in quotes by Reuters.
Mark Love, an attorney for Clearview in Australia, said the company would appeal the ruling to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, arguing that the decision demonstrated the information commissioner misunderstood the company's operation.
"The secret acquisition of this type of sensitive information is both unreasonable and unjust," Falk stated.
"Not only did the commissioner's ruling miss the mark with regards to Clearview AI's operation, but the commissioner lacked jurisdiction," Love wrote in an email.
Love emphasized that Clearview AI had not breached any laws or harmed Australians' privacy. Clearview AI is not incorporated in Australia and has no Australian users.
The OAIC directed Clearview to immediately cease collecting facial photos and biometric templates from persons in Australia and to destroy any already collected images and materials.
The United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office, which collaborated with Australian authorities on the Clearview probe, said it was evaluating future steps as a result of the countries' disparate privacy regulations.
