reached a settlement Friday in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects' privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million.
The case consolidated lawsuits from around the U.S. filed against Clearview, which pulled photos from social media and elsewhere on the internet to create a database it sold to businesses, individuals and government entities.alleging violation of privacy rights in Illinois in 2022, agreeing to stop selling access to its database to private businesses or individuals.
“Clearview did not have anywhere near the cash to pay fair compensation to the class, so we needed to find a creative solution," Loevy said in a statement. "Under the settlement, the victims whose privacy was breached now get to participate in any upside that is ultimately generated, thereby recapturing to the class to some extent the ownership of their biometrics.”
But some privacy advocates and people pursuing other legal action called the agreement a disappointment that won't change the company's operations. A former top law enforcement official in Florida is accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis and his top aides of forcing him to retire after he refused to carry out orders he says were illegal or inappropriate, according to a lawsuit filed overnight. Shane Desguin, a career employee of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, rose to become the agency's chief of staff.