NOYB files criminal complaint against Clearview AI
28/10/2025 | NOYB
Austrian privacy and digital rights advocacy group NOYB has filed a criminal complaint in Austria against the facial recognition company Clearview AI and its managers. The company, known for scraping the internet for 60 billion photos of people around the world, including Europeans, sells them to law enforcement and state actors.
The complaint follows the failure of administrative measures to stop the US-based company's practices. NOYB highlights that several EU data protection authorities (DPAs), including those in France, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands, previously imposed fines totalling approximately €100 million and issued bans against Clearview AI for clear violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, the company has largely ignored these actions, which NOYB attributes to a lack of effective enforcement mechanisms against the US entity.
The criminal complaint leverages provisions in Austrian law that allow for criminal sanctions against GDPR breaches, potentially exposing Clearview AI's leadership to jail time if found guilty.
In a statement, NOYB honorary chair Max Schrems said: “We hope that the public prosecutor also takes action when the personal data of billions of people was stolen—as has been confirmed by multiple authorities.”
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