A facial recognition firm that has collected millions of UK citizen’s faces from social media accounts has been fined over £7.5 million by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The company, which has been controversially utilized by UK police, was also ordered to stop obtaining and using the personal data of the UK residents and to delete data that it has already collected.
Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo told MailOnline: ‘This important enforcement action by the ICO should be another nail in the coffin for facial recognition in the UK.
‘Clearview AI has hoarded multiple photos of each and every one of us from the internet and made it available to the highest bidder.
‘The use of facial recognition on billions of photos will end anonymity as we know it. Already, several police forces, banking firms and a university in the UK used this Orwellian spying tech.
‘Facial recognition used as a mass surveillance tool like this has a serious, irreversible impact on all of our privacy.
‘The ICO’s order for Clearview AI to delete all UK images is extremely welcome, but it may be difficult to enforce. Parliament must now to take action on facial recognition and impose an immediate ban on excessive face surveillance.’