EU privacy advocates accuse US data annotation firm of snooping on contractors
Noyb files five complaints in four member states over alleged tracking of workers on Scale AI's Outlier platform
A US data annotation company, Scale AI, is under fire from five European privacy advocates who accuse the firm of unlawfully monitoring European contractors. The complaints, filed in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria, allege that Scale breaches the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by gathering extensive data on its Outlier AI platform workers.
These duties include labeling data, evaluating AI responses, and other tasks that improve AI models. Companies like OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, Google, and the US government contract with Scale.
Privacy group noyb argues that Scale tracks contractors through Persona, a company contracted by Scale to verify identities. Persona's system reportedly collects biometric data, IP addresses, device info, geolocation data, addresses, and credit data. In addition to biometric identification data, noyb alleges Scale tracks Outlier workers by collecting system data and device activity, transmitting the information to third parties such as LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and other analytics services.
Noyb's legal team claims Scale lacks a legal basis for installing tracking software on contractors' devices and that the company violates GDPR rules on data minimization. The complaints also allege Scale violated GDPR rights to data access and country-specific laws in the nations where the complaints were filed. Scale denies the allegations, stating that all its practices are disclosed to contributors and require their consent.
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