Clearview AI, a facial recognition start-up that scraped more than 30 billion photos from social media, can’t afford to pay the settlement bill from its class-action lawsuit so is offering Americans a stake in its company instead.
The New York-based company was sued in a federal court in Chicago in litigation that has proven so costly that Clearview AI says it will go bankrupt before making it to trial.
The unusual settlement offers members of the lawsuit a collective 23 percent stake in Clearview AI; an amount that is currently valued at $52 million, per The New York Times.
Members of the class could be literally anyone in the United States who has posted a photo of themselves online so anyone who does submit a claim could be entitled to a cut of the proceeds from a public flotation or an acquisition.
So let me see if I get this straight:
Some guy robs you and since they can’t pay the settlement bill for robbing you, they are offering you a stakeholder position in their further crimes?
Everyone is just seeing how far they can go nowadays.
If everyone is an accessory, no one has standing to sue.
Here’s the thing: everyone but you would be an accessory, so you can sue everyone who got stonks. Settle for getting their stonks, and you get 23% of (what was) the company.
(I wish I was only half-kidding, but the US be the US)
Nothing more valuable than shares in a company in such a poor financial state that it can’t pay its own settlements.
It would close out all these claims and allow creditors to take over the data and sell it tho
Less ridiculous than a losing country offering a “peace deal” where the better off country gives them all the land they wished for and promise not to join Nato.
Devoid of ethics. Company using stolen goods to get started offers profits from stolen goods going forward. How TF is this legal? That’s a rhetorical question fwiw.
Well you see it’s like this…
*proceeds to go into 8 page explanation
If companies are people we should execute one
Companies are people right up to the moment a felony is committed but no further.
Their business is built entirely on stolen data so they’re selling off a minority of shares.
Fuck these clowns.
Naa, I’ll take my …
[$52M ÷ 30 Billion]
… $0.0017 check please. Don’t forget postage.
Mmmm no I think we’re still going to sue.
And pass up on this unique opportunity to join the bourgeoisie?
Don’t post pictures of yourself online, I guess.
Sure you can, but if your friend does it, work, school, parents etc etc… You are going to end up online without knowing.
Expecting your stuff to remain private online is like leaving your belongings on the sidewalk and expecting nobody to touch them.
Some places are like that
Vanishingly few.
Or have anybody else take photos that include you, I guess.
So it’s bankruptcy, then.
