Clearview AI, a provider of facial recognition software for law enforcement, has faced legal complaints from Privacy International (PI) and several other European privacy rights organizations, including NOYB, the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, and Homo Digitalis. 

The complaints were filed in France, Austria, Greece, Italy, and the UK, claiming Clearview AI’s method of data collection violated European privacy laws. Clearview AI scrapes publicly available facial images from social media and other websites to create a database of images now exceeding 3 billion, as per the company.

Clearview AI is a provider of facial recognition software for law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators and victims. The company had around 2,900 contracts in 2020. In May 2020, the company ceased to sell its products to private companies in the US following a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Furthermore, in February 2021, Canadian privacy authorities declared Clearview AI 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.