.png)
.png)
Facial recognition company Clearview AI has reached a preliminary settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging it violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act. The company has agreed to compensate victims with a stake in the company. This unique settlement structure, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, requires Clearview to provide victims with a stake in a future initial public offering, liquidation, or sale. U.S. District Judge Sharon Coleman approved the settlement in a preliminary order on Friday.
The plaintiffs' attorneys estimate a $50 million payout to compensate victims, whose lawsuit was initiated by a 2021 New York Times story. According to the settlement agreement, the 2021 NY Times report detailed Clearview’s practice of scraping publicly available images from websites like Facebook, Venmo, and millions of others.
In 2020, over 600 law enforcement agencies and a few private companies began using Clearview for security purposes, according to the lawsuit. The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act prohibits the collection of individuals’ biometric information, such as facial geometry, without their consent.
Since 2020, Clearview has faced fines exceeding $70 million in Europe for widespread violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including fines in France, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Italy. In the U.S., the company also faces a separate lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
These ongoing and past financial liabilities “led the sides to seek a creative solution by obtaining for the class a percentage of the value Clearview could achieve in the future,” the settlement stated. The plaintiffs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clearview AI expressed satisfaction with the agreement, stating, “Clearview AI is pleased to have reached an agreement in this class action settlement,” in an emailed statement.
By fLEXI tEAM
Comentarios