Today, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) announced that they planned to team up in an investigation into Clearview AI, following the lead of several other entities suspicious of the biometric software’s data storage practices. Earlier this year, the OAIC demanded answers from Clearview and issues a notice to produce under section 44 of the Australian Privacy Act.
Clearview AI also suffered from a data breach earlier this year that leaked its customer list and the number of searches each customer had made. Among the organizations leaked in the customer list was the Australian Federal Police. Clearview is essentially like a Google Search for faces, and users can upload a photo into the app and instantly get results from publicly accessible sources such as mug shots and social media. Clearview’s database consists of 3 billion photos scraped off the internet.
Read More: UK and Australian Information Commissioners to investigate Clearview AI
