Clearview AI, a provider of facial recognition software for law enforcement, has been sued for allegedly violating privacy rights due to the company’s facial recognition database. The lawsuit was filed by two immigrant rights groups, Mijente and NorCal Resist, along with four political activists in the California Superior Court of Alameda County. 

The allegations state that more than 3 billion images of individuals have been scraped off the internet nonconsensually, with state and federal law enforcement bodies continuing to employ Clearview’s facial recognition technology in cities such as San Francisco, Berkeley, Alameda, and Oakland, where the use of the technology is banned.

The lawsuit follows Clearview’s existing legal battles in Illinois, alleging the violation of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The company has also been sent cease-and-desist letters from Google, YouTube, Twitter, Venmo, and LinkedIn requesting that it stop scraping images from their websites. However, legal representation for Clearview AI claims that the company is in compliance with applicable laws and is protected by the first amendment.

Clearview AI is a provider of facial recognition software for law enforcement agencies to identify both perpetrators and victims. The company has entered into contracts with more than 2,400 police agencies in the US. Earlier this month, Canadian privacy authorities declared Clearview illegal following the breach of local laws with regard to collecting photos without permission. It is also facing similar controversies in the UK and Australia.