The Story of the Company That Scraped 30 Billion Photos (Clearview AI)

(1) A 45 billion won fine in the Netherlands, for real?

So in May 2024, the folks at the Dutch Data Protection Authority apparently signed off on it. They hit Clearview AI, a company in New York, with a 30.5 million euro fine, which is nearly more than 45 billion won in Korean money. When they announced it in September, their chief told reporters, "Facial recognition is seriously a line-crossing technology, and you cannot just let it loose anywhere!" lol

What do these people do? They basically scrape the whole internet and grab people's faces. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn... if it is a public web page, it is mine? That is the mindset behind their crawler. As of 2024, their database reportedly holds more than 30 billion face photos. On their own website they bragged, maybe fibbed, that it was 50 billion.

They sell this to police. Pull a face from CCTV, upload it to their system, and it instantly finds, "This person's name is this, and their SNS address is here." For catching criminals, it is insanely convenient. The problem is that none of us knew our faces had been taken. Consent? Never got any of that.

To the Dutch authorities, this was a GDPR, Europe's privacy law, violation.
First, Article 6 violation! You need a legal basis to use someone else's data, but these people just barged in.
Second, Article 9 violation! Biometric data is sensitive, so collecting it itself is banned without explicit consent, but they ignored that.
Third, Article 14 violation! If you take the data, you have to tell the owner, but they kept their mouths shut.

On top of the 45 billion won fine, they also issued a corrective order, and if Clearview does not comply they say they will tack on another 7 billion won every month. The chief is furious too, saying, "We are investigating whether we can personally hold the executives accountable."

Clearview's response? "Hey, we do not have an office in the Netherlands and we do not have European customers, so why are you making a fuss? This is invalid!" Pretty much daring them to do something. But under Article 3 of the GDPR, if you scraped EU citizens' photos, they can punish you no matter what. Clearview did not even appeal, so now it has nowhere to move. Of course, it does not look like they have any intention of paying the fine, lol.

(2) Getting hit from all across Europe

The Netherlands is not the only one angry. Fine bombs are landing across Europe.

France has already imposed 20 million euros, and when they did not comply, France added another fine. Italy and the U.K. also hit them with 20 million euros and 7.5 million pounds, respectively. Add Greece, and the accumulated fines probably reached 150 billion won.

The U.K. part is kind of funny. At first, Clearview held out saying, "We only serve institutions outside the U.K., so we do not have to follow your law!" and they won at first instance. But the Information Commissioner got angry and appealed, and in 2025 the Upper Tribunal reversed the ruling. "Collecting face data itself is behavior monitoring, and you are a private company, so no exemption!" They got schooled. Now the hard part begins.

U.K. Information Commissioner Edwards said it plainly: "We will not sit back anymore while our citizens' data is scraped without permission."

(3) If they do not pay the fines, game over? Nope. They are running away.

Fines of 150 billion won? The wild part is that they have not paid a single penny, lol.

This is the limit of the GDPR. If there are no assets in Europe, there is nothing to seize. Clearview is holed up in New York, with no bank accounts and no offices in Europe. Even if Europe wants to attach assets, there is basically nothing to grab.

Still, it was not wasted effort. The effect is clear.
First, they got banned from the market! Now anyone using their service in Europe gets fined too.
Second, they effectively ran away! Their website says, "We do not do business in places like Europe, the U.K., and Australia." They are fleeing because they are scared.

Recently, the Austrians reportedly went as far as filing criminal complaints against executives. The mindset is, if you will not pay the fine, we will send you to prison. If an international arrest warrant ever comes out, Clearview executives can forget about European travel for life, lol. This should be entertaining.

In the end, the Clearview case left the homework of how to use law to go after companies that cross borders in the digital age. Clearview is still holding out, but everyone is watching how the world will teach it a lesson.