Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI agreed to an extraordinary class action settlement, The New York Times reports. Instead of paying cash, the company will give any American in its database a 23 percent stake in its company. Without the deal, Clearview could face bankruptcy, according to court documents.
If you live in the United States and have ever posted a photo of yourself publicly on the Internet, you may be part of a class action. The settlement, which could be worth at least $50 million, still has to be approved by a federal judge, according to court documents.
Clearview AI, which is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, said it has more than 30 billion images in its database. These may include and cross-reference thousands of law enforcement agencies, including the US FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
Shortly after his identity was revealed, it became Clearview hit with claims Illinois, California, Virginia, New York and elsewhere, all brought together as a class action in federal court in Chicago. Litigation is said to deplete a company’s resources, forcing it to seek creative ways to resolve litigation.
A relatively small amount divided by the large number of users likely to be in the database means you won’t make any profit. However, according to the report, this can only happen if the company goes public or is acquired. Once that happens, lawyers will take up to 39 percent of the settlement, meaning the final amount could be reduced to about $30 million. If a third of Americans were in the database (about 110 million), each would receive about 27 cents.
This begs the question of whether it would be worth more than a quarter to see one of the scariest companies of all time go bankrupt. To give a small quote from the actions taken against him (on top of the US class action):
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it happened Sued by the ACLU In 2020 (Clearview agreed to permanently stop selling its biometric database to private companies in the US.
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Italy He imposed a fine of 20 million euros In 2022, it banned the use of images of Italians in its company profile and database
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Privacy groups in Europe filed complaints against him for violating privacy laws (2021)
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The UK’s privacy watchdog slapped him down A fine of £7.55 million and ordered to delete the data of any UK resident
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LAPD prohibited its use Its software in 2020
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Earlier this year, the E.U is prohibited The indiscriminate removal of faces from the Internet effectively blocks Clearview’s business model in Europe.
