- Clearview AI has agreed to a novel class-action lawsuit settlement: Handing out stakes in itself.
- The company pulled photos of people from the web to create its facial recognition technology.
- Now, it's agreed to give those people part of a 23% share of the company to settle the suit.
Your face could make you a shareholder in Clearview AI, thanks to the terms of a potential settlement of a lawsuit against the company.
The company has agreed to give people whose visages it used to create a facial recognition app a collective 23% stake in the company, The New York Times reported Thursday. Clearview and the plaintiffs suing the company reached the agreement in advance of the class-action going to trial.
Clearview used a wide variety of photos of people posted online to develop its technology, meaning that virtually anyone could claim to be part of the class in the lawsuit and claim some of the stake, the NYT reported. Law enforcement officials from local police departments to the FBI have used Clearview's technology, according to the report. The US Army was also a client of the company.
Lawyers leading the charge against Clearview argued that the company's approach violated the privacy of people whose photos it used.
Clearview opted to offer a stake instead of cash payments since the company could "go bankrupt before the case made it to trial," according to the NYT.
The settlement still needs to be approved by a US District Court judge, the NYT reported.
"Clearview AI is pleased to have reached an agreement in this class-action settlement," Jim Thompson, a partner at Lynch Thompson and lawyer for Clearview, told Business Insider through a spokesperson. The spokesperson did not respond to a request for further comment on the settlement.
The proposed settlement gives people whose photos were used by Clearview a stake in the company's future. Those who claim some of the 23% could benefit if the company goes public or is acquired, for example. Advertisements promoting the settlement would be placed on social media sites like Facebook.
But the proposal also contains an irony for the people whose photos Clearview AI used.
"Now you have people who are injured by Clearview trampling on their privacy rights becoming financially interested in Clearview finding new ways to trample them," Jay Edelson, a class-action lawyer, told the NYT.
Privacy remains a big concern for many as AI rollouts continue. On Monday, Apple executives outlined a plan for AI that they said would protect user privacy as the company added features to its latest operating system.
While the company is adding an integration with OpenAI on the iPhone and other devices, for example, customers will have to opt in to use it.
