The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has decided to cease its pursuit of Clearview AI concerning the use of Australian faces in its controversial facial recognition software. Clearview AI gained notoriety for its practices, which involved scraping billions of images from the internet without consent to create a massive database for its facial recognition technology. This database, which reportedly contains over 50 billion faces, was used by various law enforcement agencies, including the Australian Federal Police. In 2021, the OAIC ruled that Clearview AI must stop collecting these images and delete its existing database within 90 days.
Initially, Clearview AI appealed the OAIC’s decision, claiming it was not subject to Australian jurisdiction since it had blocked its scraping tools from Australian servers. However, in January 2023, the company failed to maintain those measures, allowing Australian facial images from social media and other platforms to be collected unintentionally. This lapse undermined their appeal and the OAIC’s determination that Clearview AI needed to comply with the Privacy Act, which governs how personal information is collected, used, or disclosed in the context of artificial intelligence.
Despite the lack of evidence that Clearview AI had complied with the OAIC’s original ruling, the privacy watchdog announced on August 21 that it would no longer invest resources in scrutinizing the company’s actions. OAIC Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind indicated that extensive consideration had been given to the matter, noting that Clearview AI had already faced scrutiny from multiple jurisdictions worldwide and was involved in a class action lawsuit in the United States. As a result, the OAIC concluded that pursuing further action against Clearview AI was not warranted at this time.
Although the OAIC is stepping back from direct enforcement actions against Clearview AI, it has reiterated that the company’s actions are concerning and pose ongoing risks to the privacy of Australians, especially as the development of generative AI technologies continues. The OAIC plans to release guidance for organizations developing and training generative AI models, emphasizing compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This guidance will also address the use of commercially available AI products, such as chatbots, reinforcing the importance of protecting personal information in the evolving landscape of
artificial intelligence.
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