An Alberta court has upheld a provincial order banning Clearview AI from offering its facial recognition services in the province, rejecting the company’s attempt to overturn the decision. The ruling reaffirms a 2021 order from the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner, which found that Clearview’s practices violated the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
Provincial and National Pushback
This decision is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for Clearview AI in Canada. In addition to Alberta’s action, privacy commissioners in British Columbia and Quebec issued similar findings, determining that the company’s scraping of facial images from publicly available websites constituted mass surveillance. Clearview voluntarily exited the Canadian market in 2020 following these investigations but has not made a formal commitment to remain out permanently.
Clearview’s data collection practices have drawn criticism from regulators who argue that publicly accessible personal information remains subject to privacy protections. The 2021 ruling by Canadian privacy authorities ordered the company to stop collecting, using, and disclosing biometric data without consent and to delete any such information in its possession related to Canadian individuals.
In Alberta, the court ruling emphasized that the company failed to obtain meaningful consent for the collection of personal information, breaching provincial law. The Alberta Commissioner has previously taken issue with facial recognition systems, citing concerns over their potential misuse and the lack of clear safeguards.
Legal Troubles Continue in the U.S.
Outside Canada, Clearview AI continues to face scrutiny. The company recently agreed to a $51.75 million settlement in Illinois related to alleged violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The settlement is not an immediate cash payment: it is structured as an equity deal, meaning payment is contingent on a future IPO, company sale, or percentage of revenue over time. A separate 2022 settlement with the ACLU had already barred the company from selling its facial recognition database to private entities in the United States, narrowing its business focus to government clients.
While Clearview has made efforts to improve its compliance posture, including announcing SOC 2 Type 2 audit completion, independent confirmation of the specific claims made in its press statements remains limited. Regulators have not signaled that these internal improvements outweigh the broader concerns about how the company collects and uses biometric data.
Leadership Shift and Strategic Refocus
The ruling in Alberta coincides with a period of internal change at Clearview AI. In late 2024, founder and CEO Hoan Ton-That stepped down, and board member Hal Lambert, a political strategist and early investor, assumed leadership. Under Lambert, the company has begun shifting its focus toward securing federal contracts in the United States, part of a broader attempt to pivot away from commercial deployments and court ongoing law enforcement partnerships.
As legal and regulatory pressure continues in multiple jurisdictions, Clearview AI’s future remains closely tied to the evolving debate over biometric data rights, consent, and surveillance in the digital age.
Source: Lexology
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May 14, 2025 – by Ali Nassar-Smith
