Scale AI Faces Five GDPR Complaints Over Outlier Worker Tracking and Biometrics

Privacy organization noyb filed five GDPR complaints against Scale AI in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria over alleged unlawful processing of freelancers’ personal data on its Outlier AI-training platform. The complaints allege that third-party tracking transmits workers’ personal information every few seconds without consent or another valid legal basis. They also challenge mandatory, repeated biometric identity verification through Persona, excessive data collection and alleged failures to answer data-access requests. Outlier reportedly has approximately 900,000 contributors, although the reports do not establish how many experienced each alleged practice.

Scale AI rejects the allegations, saying contributors consent to practices supporting identity verification, fraud prevention, confidentiality and accurate payment. However, its screen-monitoring notice reportedly cites legitimate interests rather than consent, highlighting a disputed legal basis for the monitoring. noyb has requested regulatory investigations and administrative fines; no GDPR violation or enforcement decision has been established. The proceedings could affect privacy requirements for AI-training platforms using EU-based workers, particularly around tracking, biometric verification and handling access requests.