The ACLU Is Suing Clearview AI To Stop “Privacy-Destroying Face Surveillance”

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Clearview AI on Thursday, arguing that the facial recognition startup violated the privacy of Illinois residents in amassing a database of more than 3 billion photos scraped from websites and social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

In describing a “nightmare scenario” in the complaint filed in Illinois state court, the ACLU and other groups representing domestic violence survivors, sex workers, and immigrants said they were suing to put an end to Clearview’s “unlawful surreptitious capture and storage of millions of Illinoisans’ sensitive biometric identifiers.” The lawsuit alleges that the facial recognition startup violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a 2008 law that prevents companies from collecting or storing fingerprints or scans of citizen’s faces without their consent.

While the BIPA allows Illinois residents to sue companies for up to $5,000 for each violation, Nate Freed Wessler, an ACLU staff attorney, told BuzzFeed News that the plaintiffs were not seeking money.

“We’re not seeking monetary damages, only injunctive relief, he said. “We want to see Clearview delete the faceprints it illegally captured and also stop capturing them in the future.”

Since a story in the New York Times in January revealed it to the public, Clearview AI has come under scrutiny from lawmakers, news organizations, and civil liberties groups like the ACLU, which has called the company’s business “privacy-destroying face surveillance.” In February, a BuzzFeed News investigation found that Clearview had provided its facial recognition software to more than 2,200 federal agencies, police departments, and private companies, despite its CEO’s claim that the tool was “strictly for law enforcement.”