ACLU accuses Clearview AI of privacy “nightmare scenario”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/technology/clearview-ai-privacy-lawsuit.html

by dwighttk • 6 years ago

116 25 6 years ago

pixxel2• 6 years ago

The facial recognition start-up violated the privacy of Illinois residents by collecting their images without their consent, the civil liberties group says in a new lawsuit.
In a suit filed in Illinois, the A.C.L.U. said that Clearview violated a state law that forbids companies from using a resident’s fingerprints or face scans without consent.
Under the law, residents have the right to sue companies for up to $5,000 per privacy violation.

...

Up to $5k doesn’t seem adequate in this case.

tuckerconnelly• 6 years ago

Wouldn't it be $5k * number of images scraped? Illinois has 12.7 million residents. If only 6 million images were scraped, that would be $30B.

zoopdewoop• 6 years ago

Those darn COPA violations...

pixxel2• 6 years ago

Yes indeed. Sorry I wasn’t clear, I meant from an individual’s perspective. $5K isn’t much, but yes the total sum would give some satisfaction.

drchopchop• 6 years ago

Well, their "HQ" is a 1-person WeWork office near Penn Station, I kinda doubt they have the money to pay out any giant class action settlements.

jackson1442• 6 years ago

Of course, you can only opt-out if you're a citizen of California, Illinois, the EU, UK, or Switzerland. Absurd.

hellcow2• 6 years ago

They don't even honor that. My info and deletion requests from months ago were ignored.

thephyber2• 6 years ago

Small claims court litigation (if the courts ever reopen and clear the backlog of bankruptcies) will get some attention.

adrr• 6 years ago

Was it a CCPA request or GDPR?

shostack• 6 years ago

Ditto.

sir_brickalot• 6 years ago

I asked for info under GDPR and sent them a heavily redacted copy of my ID (redacted: surname, half my ID, address) and actually got an answer 3 weeks later that they have nothing on me. Citing their email:

"Hello, You are receiving this email as a response to your request for data access. After running the photo provided through our algorithm, no matches were found."

Next step: Opt-out. Step after that: Rinse, repeat.

thephyber2• 6 years ago

I suggest you make your voice heard with your legislative representatives.

Also, to be pedantic, California and Illinois are states, not nations, so the more accurate term is probably resident for those jurisdictions.

cjhveal2• 6 years ago

Actually, to be pedantic, citizens of the United States are indeed citizens of the state in which they reside, according to the 14th Amendment:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

hoppla2• 6 years ago

Does not gdpr laws apply to Norway anymore?

disabled2• 6 years ago

GDPR does apply to Norway, and Norway has a fairly well developed privacy agency. However, according to investigations by Financial Times (the newspaper), none of the European countries have enough people hired to either deal with alleged privacy breaches, or people equipped to actually properly investigate these claims.

The Financial Times tends to have great coverage on data privacy. It is impressive on what they uncover, even with technicalities. Also, the coverage is not fleeting or apocalyptic at all. Somehow, I have never been disappointed with them covering even tech in general. But, their data privacy coverage is generally great.

SheinhardtWigCo• 6 years ago

...by sending them a clear photo of your face and a government-issued ID. Fuck that.

disabled2• 6 years ago

It is worth becoming an EU citizen just to be able to opt out. I am not exaggerating at all.

ACLU accuses Clearview AI of privacy “nightmare scenario”

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