Background
This multidistrict litigation consolidated numerous federal actions alleging that Clearview AI, Inc. unlawfully collected and used biometric data, following transfer by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to the Northern District of Illinois as MDL No. 2967. The consolidated complaints, brought on behalf of a nationwide class and Illinois, California, New York, and Virginia subclasses, asserted claims under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act and parallel state-law privacy, publicity, computer-crime, and unjust enrichment theories, as well as a federal declaratory-judgment claim. Over several years the court supervised extensive motion practice, including preliminary-injunction proceedings and interlocutory issues concerning retailer defendant Macy’s, before the parties negotiated a class settlement providing equity-linked monetary relief and other benefits for class members. On 20 March 2025 the court granted final approval of the settlement, certified the settlement class, and terminated the district-court case, while appeals by objectors proceeded in the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
AI Interaction
The litigation centres on Clearview’s facial-recognition system, which builds a searchable biometric database by scraping images from the internet and matching them to photos uploaded by customers, including law-enforcement and private-sector users. In its final approval opinion, the court noted that “Through its internet scraping efforts, Clearview’s database quickly grew to a staggering three billion images” and that “[a]s of October 29, 2021, Clearview’s database contained approximately ten billion images”. It explained that the settlement’s monetary relief is tied to “a Settlement Stake—a monetary amount equal to a 23% equity stake in Clearview as of September 6, 2023”, to be realised through specified triggering events and overseen by a Settlement Master in light of the company’s ongoing deployment of facial-recognition technology and associated privacy risks. (ECF No. 647).
Note:
On 20 March 2025 the district court granted final approval of the nationwide class settlement, certified the settlement class, and terminated the case; named objectors have appealed the approval order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, so appellate proceedings remain ongoing.