A federal judge in Illinois has granted final approval to Clearview AI’s contentious $51.75 million settlement, bringing an end to years of litigation over its biometric data collection practices. The ruling, delivered by U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, dismissed fierce objections from 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, who argued that the deal offered insufficient relief to those affected by the company’s controversial facial recognition technology.
A High-Stakes Legal Battle Over Digital Privacy
The lawsuit, spanning five years, challenged Clearview AI’s practice of scraping facial images from the internet without consent, amassing a vast biometric database. The final settlement encompasses up to 125,000 individuals, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over privacy rights in the digital age.
Despite pushback from multiple states, Judge Coleman deemed the deal “fair, reasonable, and adequate”, asserting that Clearview’s violations fell primarily under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) rather than a broad federal framework.
“Even if plaintiffs succeeded in their BIPA claim, the statute does not expressly intend to operate extraterritorially,” she ruled, stating that nationwide or state-specific injunctive relief would likely be unenforceable.
