A federal judge approved a controversial privacy settlement that gives class members a 23% equity stake in facial recognition software firm Clearview AI Inc.
The settlement, reached last year, drew objections from 22 state attorneys general, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia, as well as individual objectors, some represented by Public Citizen. But, in a Monday order, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, of the Northern District of Illinois, agreed with class counsel that the 23% stake was preferable to monetary relief under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act that could put Clearview AI out of business.