Opinion: Artificial intelligence facial recognition surveillance and the breach of privacy rights: The ‘Clearview AI’ and ‘Rite Aid’ case studies

• Citation: (2023) IPLJ 88
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SAIPLJ/v11/a5
• Published date: 18 January 2024
• Pages: 88-92
• Author: Nwafor, I.E.
• Date: 18 January 2024

88

https://doi.o rg/10.4734 8/SAIP LJ/v11/a5

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

FACIAL RECOGNITION

SURVEILLANCE AND THE

BREACH OF PRIVACY RIGHTS: THE

‘CLEARVIEW AI’ AND ‘RITE AID’

CASE ST UDIES

*

Senior Lecture r, Godfrey Okoye University ( Nigeria); Visiting Scholar, Facult y of

Law and Criminolog y, KU Leuven, Belgium; Member, United Nati ons Development

Programme AI4Dev Refer ence Group; Research Member, Centre for Art icial

Intelligence Digital Polic y

  

    

models and the accessibility of photos onl ine by companies and governments

have amounted to the excessive misuse of facial su rveillance systems. T he

government, the police and orga nisations have a long history of using AI facial

recognition technologies to gat her data on citizens wit hout respecting their

data and privacy r ights. The government relies on national secur ity and public

safety to justify s uch gathering of data. Mar ginalised groups a nd people of

colour are disproport ionately affected by such surveil lance. Data protection

and privacy rights act ivists have called on governments to r egulate facial

recognition systems. It is also e ssential to establish AI oversight agencies with

the responsibility to mon itor the use of AI models and to ban such use when it

breaches citizens’ data a nd privacy rights, and any other human rights.



provides a risk management f ramework with different r ules for different risk

levels: unacceptable risks, high r isks, and limite d or low-risk applications.

In June 2023, the European Parlia ment voted in favour of a total ban on live

facial recognition in public spa ces. Although the new Act did not stipulate a

full ban on live facial recog nition surveillanc e, it provides that all high-risk

AI systems will be a ssessed before being put on the market and th roughout

their l ifecycle.

African govern ments have caught the AI bug but only a few Afr ican

countries have an exist ing AI strategy; t hese include Mauritius, Egy pt and

Rwanda. It has been argued t hat international A I technologies and ethical

* LLB (NAU) LLM PhD ( UNN).

(2023) IPLJ 88

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