Australia: OAIC and ICO open investigation into Clearview AI for potential violation of privacy law

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened a joint investigation into Clearview AI to check its conformity with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988. Clearview AI provides a facial recognition search tool that allows user input to be compared to a database of over 3 billion images. The investigation seeks to determine whether there have been breaches of specific APPs, including the requirements to manage information openly and transparently (APP 1.2), of obtaining consent for collecting sensitive information (APP 3.3), of collecting information by lawful means (APP 3.5), of notifying on collection (APP 5), and of ensuring the quality of collected information (APP 10).