Enterprise face recognition
Clearview AI
Clearview AI is a US company that built a face recognition search over images scraped from the public web and social media, and sells it to law enforcement and government agencies. It claims an index of more than 100 billion images. It is not available to consumers, and it is the most fined face search operator in the world: regulators in the UK, France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada have ruled against it, and a 2022 US settlement bars it from selling the database to private companies.
Updated November 6, 2026 · 4 min read · reviewed November 6, 2026
- 100B+
- Images claimed in the index
- EUR 90.5M
- GDPR fines issued by four EU regulators
- 7
- Countries with a regulator decision against it
clearview.ai, Nov 2026 (company claim)
CNIL, Garante, HDPA (EUR 20M each), Dutch AP (EUR 30.5M)
Cases on this wiki
What is Clearview AI?
Clearview AI built a one-to-many matching system: a face from a photo is compared with faces extracted from images scraped from public web pages and social media, and matches come back with their source links. The company's site describes its customers as law enforcement and government, lists public safety, criminal investigations, federal, national security and public defender uses, and claims "100+ billion images" in its database and "99+% accuracy for all demographics", citing NIST testing (clearview.ai, checked November 6, 2026). The accuracy figure is the company's reading of NIST's vendor tests; NIST does not endorse products.
The difference from consumer engines such as PimEyes or FaceSearch is twofold: the index was built by scraping platforms that prohibit it, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, which sent cease-and-desist letters in 2020; and the product is not sold to the public. Clearview matters to this wiki because its litigation defined how biometric data law applies to scraping faces from the web.
What have regulators decided?
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January 2020
The New York Times exposes the company
Kashmir Hill's report describes the scraped index and its use by hundreds of agencies.
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February 2021
Canada: joint finding
The federal and three provincial commissioners find mass surveillance in breach of PIPEDA and provincial laws.
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November 2021
Australia: OAIC determination
Clearview ordered to stop collecting and to delete Australians' images.
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March 2022
Italy: EUR 20 million
The Garante fines Clearview and orders deletion.
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May 2022
UK: GBP 7.5 million; USA: ACLU settlement
The ICO fines Clearview; in Illinois the ACLU settlement bars sales of the database to private entities nationwide.
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July 2022
Greece: EUR 20 million
The Hellenic DPA fines Clearview.
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October 2022
France: EUR 20 million
CNIL imposes the maximum fine after an unanswered formal notice.
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September 2024
Netherlands: EUR 30.5 million
The Dutch AP fines Clearview and bans its use in the Netherlands; the decision was not appealed.
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October 2025
UK: Upper Tribunal
The tribunal sides with the ICO on jurisdiction and remits the case; Clearview is granted permission to appeal.
Each decision has its own entry: ICO v Clearview, Dutch DPA v Clearview, CNIL v Clearview, Garante v Clearview, Hellenic DPA v Clearview, OAIC v Clearview, OPC v Clearview and ACLU v Clearview.
What did the ACLU settlement change?
Filed in Cook County, Illinois, on 9 May 2022 under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, the settlement imposes a permanent nationwide injunction on granting paid or free access to the database to private entities and individuals, a five-year ban covering Illinois state and local agencies, and an opt-out for Illinois residents. Federal and other state agencies and their contractors are exempt, and the injunction can be revisited if BIPA or another law is amended to permit private access (ACLU case page, checked November 6, 2026).
| Jurisdiction | Authority | Outcome | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | CNIL | Fine, deletion order, later penalty for non-compliance | EUR 20 million (2022) plus EUR 5.2 million (2023) |
| Italy | Garante | Fine and ban | EUR 20 million (2022) |
| Greece | Hellenic DPA | Fine and ban | EUR 20 million (2022) |
| Netherlands | Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens | Fine, ban, penalty payments if not stopped | EUR 30.5 million (2024), up to EUR 5.1 million more |
| United Kingdom | ICO | Fine and deletion order; jurisdiction contested, Upper Tribunal for the ICO in 2025 | GBP 7.5 million (2022) |
| Australia | OAIC | Determination to stop and delete; no further action in 2024 | None |
| Canada | OPC and provinces | Finding and provincial orders to stop and delete | None |
| United States (Illinois) | ACLU v Clearview, Cook County | Consent judgment, nationwide private-sale ban | No fine; separate class settlement in federal court |
Can an individual opt out?
Clearview's Privacy and Requests page offers data access and deletion requests, and the ACLU settlement created an opt-out for Illinois residents. EU, UK, Canadian and Australian regulators have ordered deletion of their residents' data outright; whether Clearview complies outside its US agency business is the subject of the ongoing enforcement. The opt-out routes directory lists the forms that exist.
Questions
Can I use Clearview AI?
No. The company sells only to law enforcement and government agencies, and a 2022 settlement bars it from selling the database to private companies in the US.
Is Clearview AI legal?
In the US it operates under state biometric laws and the ACLU settlement. Regulators in the UK, France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada have found its scraping unlawful and ordered deletion or fines.
How big is Clearview's database?
The company claims more than 100 billion images on its website. The figure is not independently verified.
Can I get my photos removed from Clearview?
Its Privacy and Requests page accepts data requests, and Illinois residents have a settlement opt-out. In the EU, UK, Canada and Australia, regulators have ordered deletion of residents' data.
Sources
- 1.Clearview AI website (checked November 6, 2026)
- 2.ACLU: ACLU v. Clearview AI (settlement documents) (checked November 6, 2026)
- 3.JURIST: Netherlands data protection authority fines US AI company 30.5M euros (checked November 6, 2026)
- 4.Euronews: Clearview AI fined by Dutch authorities (checked November 6, 2026)
Entry reviewed November 6, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.
Related entries
- Case Information Commissioner v Clearview AI (United Kingdom) ICO v Clearview AI: the GBP 7.5 million fine, the 2023 tribunal loss, the October 2025 Upper Tribunal judgment, and the Court of Appeal stage pending in 2026.
- Case Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens v Clearview AI (Netherlands) Dutch DPA v Clearview AI: the EUR 30.5 million GDPR fine of 2024, its penalty payments, why the decision is final, and what it means for face search engines.
- Case ACLU v Clearview AI (Illinois BIPA settlement) ACLU v Clearview AI: the 2020 BIPA suit, the 2022 settlement banning sales to private companies, and the federal class action whose settlement was vacated in 2026.
- Law Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) Illinois BIPA (740 ILCS 14): consent before collecting face geometry, a private right of action, $1,000 to $5,000 per violation, the 2024 amendment, and face search.
- Law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and biometric data GDPR and face search: Article 9 biometric data, the household exemption, territorial reach under Article 3(2), fines up to 4%, and the Clearview and PimEyes cases.
- Concept Building a web-scale face index How face search engines crawl the public web, store billions of embeddings for nearest-neighbour lookup, keep the index fresh, and decide what counts as public.
Cite this entry
FaceSearch Wiki editors. "Clearview AI". FaceSearch Wiki, updated November 6, 2026. https://facesearch.wiki/engines/clearview-ai/