Clearview AI faces criminal heat for ignoring EU data fines

Privacy advocates at Noyb filed a criminal complaint against Clearview AI for scraping social media users' faces without consent to train its AI algorithms. Austria-based Noyb (None of Your Business) is targeting the US company and its executives, arguing that if successful, individuals who authorized the data collection could …

[Alan Brown]

Without long-arm statutes, GDPR is worth less than the paper it's printed on.

This is "most disappointing", to put it politely

[Anonymous Coward]

Be careful what you wish for, our terribile goverment has longer arms than yours.

[Potemkine!]

Keep up the good work Noyb !

[Rich 2]

Sounds like

…the EU need to make an extradition request to the US for the people running the company

After all, the US seems to have no hesitation in doing the same

[prh99]

Re: Sounds like

They can but it's got a snow ball's chance in hell.

Trump already doesn't like EU regs and I believe the State Department can just say no.

Also scraping the public internet is not Illegal where Clearview is. If you're not a multinational the GDPR is meaningless.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds like

"Also scraping the public internet is not Illegal where Clearview is", that is not necessarily true at all. It's all about the intent.

[prh99]

Re: Sounds like

Not in the way the EU would claim in any extraditition request. They can't even enforce their fines. It's pretty clear they have zero jurisdiction.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds like

Yes, we don't have black sites, a Guantanomo Bay or legalised kidnapping in Europe. Doing things extralegal is apparently a US privillege..

[collinsl]

Re: Sounds like

In fact the State Department pretty much always says no - notwithstanding any extradition treaties the US pretty much adopts as default the position of "we will never send a US Citizen abroad to be tried for any reason, anywhere". They can make whatever treaties they like saying "we'll extradite them this time, promise!" but then they never do. Ever.

So you either have to try them in US courts following US law (which may or may not recognise jurisdiction) or hope to arrest them outside the USA on some domestic or international arrest warrant and either try them under your own system or have them extradited to your country by the third party country that arrested them.

The most likely outcome however is that they never travel outside the US and are thus immune to the warrants or prosecutions etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds like

Extradition only works one way with the USA, their way.

[anothercynic]

Re: Sounds like

An Interpol red notice for the executives would be a nice start... watch those Clearview execs find themselves limited to the US, maybe Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea... ;-)

[kmorwath]

Re: Sounds like

Even if no exttadition happens, having a criminal proceeditng on your head greatly limits the places were you could spend your hard earned millions made scraped illegally (in EU and UK) someone else's data.

[carguy143]

The online safety act is to blame.

The online safety act has led to an overreach of all these new companies wanting to take our ID, or likeness, as part of their business model. It's yet another piece of data that's out there, which is at risk of being stollen and used fraudulently.

If it was really about safety, the government would have mandated the verification methods which could have included not having to give copies of your ID or likeness over the Internet.