Two privacy wins and 5 complaints against Scale AI

Hello,

imagine you’re at work, just trying to do your job – only to find out that your employer allows tech giants such as TikTok, Meta and X to collect your personal data. This may sound dystopian to most, but it's the reality for those who work for the AI training platform Outlier. noyb now took legal action against this workplace surveillance.

Moreover, we achieved not one, but two privacy wins this month! Read on to find out all the details!

AI training platform Outlier illegally surveils European platform workers

From courier services and food delivery, all the way to data annotation: more than 40 million people already have their work organised by platforms. This puts people in a vulnerable position.

Unsurprisingly, the AI industry heavily relies on this new type of work. Popular AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok are also trained by actual people who manually review or annotate their output. One of the biggest players in this field is the US company Scale AI, which operates the data annotation platform Outlier AI.

The problem: Outlier is subjecting its workers to invasive tracking. The company places trackers from companies such as TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook on the workers’ devices. Every few seconds, these trackers send the workers’ personal data to third parties. In addition, Scale AI also forces workers to repeatedly go through an invasive biometric verification process. This includes video recordings of their face and uploading their ID.

In Europe, this far-reaching workplace surveillance clearly violates the workers’ fundamental right to data protection. Therefore, noyb has filed a total of 5 complaints against Scale AI in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria.

Interested in more information? Take a look at The Register or our website!

German DPA finds microtargeting by major political parties illegal

Over three years ago, noyb had filed complaints against several German political parties for unlawfully using political microtargeting during the 2021 federal election. Now, the Berlin Data Protection Authority has finally issued decisions concerning the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, the Left (Die LINKE), and the CDU.

All four parties were reprimanded for using sensitive political interests to target internet users with personalised political advertising. Such microtargeting is only possible because online platforms create extensive user profiles with people’s interests, habits, interactions and other information. These details can be used to manipulate people in the electoral process. Therefore, microtargeting poses a threat to democratic elections.

Our complaint against the AfD is currently still pending with the authority. While the AfD also engaged in political microtargeting, it (so far unsuccessfully) fought the Berlin DPA’s investigative powers in court.

You can find more information on our website!

noyb win: French electronics retailer Fnac Darty fined €7 million

In September 2023, noyb filed complaints in France against the real estate app SeLoger, the fitness app MyFitnessPal and the electronics retail chain Fnac Darty. The companies’ apps illegally accessed and shared users’ personal data with third parties as soon as the apps were opened. Users didn’t even have the chance to consent to or prevent the sharing of their data.

Following these noyb complaints, the French data protection authority (CNIL) launched its own investigation into Fnac Darty in March 2024 – and confirmed noyb’s findings. The CNIL restated that the processing of personal data for targeted advertising requires users’ consent.

Based on these findings, the CNIL now fined Fnac Darty €7 million.

You can find more information on Cybernews and our website!

All the best from Vienna,

Mickey and the noyb team

Imprint:
NOYB - European Center for Digital Rights Goldschlagstraße 172/4/3/2
1140 Wien
[email protected]
ZVR: 1354838270