Biometric privacy & facial recognition lawsuits & cases
Collection or use of faceprints and other biometric identifiers without consent (Illinois BIPA), and wrongful arrests from false facial-recognition matches.
8 tracked cases
- SettledSettlement approved Mar 20, 2025
In re Clearview AI Biometric Privacy Litigation
Clearview AI facial-recognition database · United States (Illinois)
A consolidated nationwide BIPA class action over Clearview AI’s faceprint scraping settled on a novel basis: rather than cash, the class received a roughly 23% equity stake in Clearview, valued at approximately $51.75 million. A federal judge approved the settlement in March 2025.
- SettledSettled 2025 ($200,000)
Reid v. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
Clearview AI facial recognition (Jefferson Parish SO) · United States (Louisiana)
Randall Reid, a Georgia resident who had never been to Louisiana, was jailed for nearly a week in 2022 after a Clearview AI facial-recognition match led to theft warrants; the arrest affidavit did not disclose the facial-recognition basis. He sued for civil-rights violations; the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office agreed to a $200,000 settlement, reported finalized in 2025.
- SettledSettled Jun 28, 2024
Williams v. City of Detroit
DataWorks Plus facial-recognition technology (Detroit PD) · United States (Michigan)
Robert Williams was wrongfully arrested in January 2020 after Detroit police facial recognition falsely matched him to shoplifting footage — the first publicly reported wrongful arrest from a false face-recognition match in the U.S. In June 2024 the parties reached a settlement that, alongside monetary terms, imposed some of the nation’s strongest police restrictions on facial-recognition use.
- Regulatory actionSettlement Dec 19, 2023
FTC v. Rite Aid Corporation
Rite Aid in-store facial-recognition 'AI watchlist' system · United States (federal)
The FTC alleged Rite Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of stores to flag suspected shoplifters without reasonable safeguards, generating thousands of false positives that led consumers to be wrongly surveilled, searched, ejected, or reported to police, with disproportionate false-positive rates in plurality-Black, Latino, and Asian communities. The 2023 settlement banned Rite Aid from using facial recognition for five years and required deletion of collected data and models.
- DismissedFiled Aug 3, 2023
Woodruff v. City of Detroit
DataWorks Plus facial-recognition technology (Detroit PD) · United States (Michigan)
Porcha Woodruff, then eight months pregnant, was wrongfully arrested in February 2023 for robbery and carjacking after Detroit police facial recognition matched her to an eight-year-old mugshot; charges were dropped for insufficient evidence. She sued the city; a federal judge later dismissed the suit, finding her complaint did not adequately show the officer lacked probable cause.
- SettledConsent order May 11, 2022
ACLU v. Clearview AI, Inc.
Clearview AI facial-recognition database · United States (Illinois)
The ACLU sued Clearview AI under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) over its scraping of billions of faceprints from the internet without consent. A 2022 consent order permanently barred Clearview from selling its faceprint database to most private entities nationwide and from selling to any Illinois entity, including police, for five years.
- SettledSettlement Oct 2021 ($92M)
In re TikTok, Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation
TikTok/ByteDance (and predecessor Musical.ly) · United States (Illinois BIPA / nationwide class)
A consolidated class action alleged TikTok and predecessor Musical.ly wrongfully collected users' biometric data (facial scans) and shared private data with third parties in violation of Illinois' BIPA, the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, and other laws. A federal court in Chicago preliminarily approved a $92 million settlement in 2021, one of the largest consumer biometric-privacy settlements.
- SettledSettlement approved Feb 26, 2021 ($650M)
In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation
Facebook (Meta) 'Tag Suggestions' facial recognition · United States (Illinois BIPA class)
A class of Illinois Facebook users alleged that Facebook's 'Tag Suggestions' feature scanned facial geometry without the written consent required by BIPA. The court approved a $650 million settlement — then the largest all-cash privacy settlement — with about 1.6 million claimants receiving at least $345 each.
Other harm types
Informational summaries compiled from public sources cited on each case page. Not legal advice. Verify current status with primary sources.