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Clearview AI faces $45.6M fine in the Netherlands for 'illegal database of faces

The Dutch data protection watchdog on Tuesday issued facial recognition startup Clearview AI with a fine of 30.5 million euros ($45.6 million Cdn) over its creation of what the agency called an "illegal database" of billions of photos of faces.

Clearview AI, whose facial recognition software is being demonstrated in this 2022 file photo, has been fined millions of euros by a Dutch data protection watchdog, which says building a database of faces without informing those depicted amounts to serious breaches of privacy rights. In June, Clearview reached a settlement in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects' privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million US. The case in Illinois consolidated lawsuits from around the U.S. filed against Clearview, which pulled photos from social media and elsewhere on the internet to create a database that it sold to businesses, individuals and government entities.

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