Privacy Group noyb Files GDPR Complaints Over How Scale AI Monitors Outlier Contributors

The Austrian privacy group noyb filed five complaints on October 27 with data protection authorities in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria, alleging that Scale AI breaks the EU's General Data Protection Regulation in how it monitors people who do AI training work on its Outlier platform. noyb filed them with the French group Intérêt à Agir, the research network DIPLab and Reversing.Works. The complaints allege that third-party trackers collect contributors' data while they work, and that Persona, the company that runs Outlier's identity checks, collects more biometric and personal data than the law allows.

According to noyb, trackers from companies including TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, the survey tool Sprig and the analytics service Datadog run on contributors' devices while they work on Outlier, sending their personal data to those companies as often as every few seconds. noyb argues Scale has no legal basis to place the trackers without consent and collects more than it needs, and The Register reports that the complaints say Scale collects system data and device activity, including activity outside Outlier work. "Why should LinkedIn or Facebook know which tasks you're working on?" said Lisa Steinfeld Leiser, a data protection lawyer at noyb.

On identity checks, noyb says contributors must repeatedly record a face video and upload an ID document for Persona, and that Persona also collects IP addresses, device information, geolocation, home addresses and consumer credit data. The complaints also say Scale never answered complainants' requests to see the data it holds on them, which the GDPR requires. noyb asks the authorities to investigate and to fine Scale.

Scale disputes the allegations. In a statement to The Register, it said "the report's claims are unfounded and inaccurate," that "Outlier's practices are disclosed to contributors and require their consent," and that it uses "standard tools to verify identities, prevent fraud, protect confidential project information, and ensure accurate payment." The complaints are part of AI-WORLD, a project on working conditions in AI supply chains led by Intérêt à Agir with DIPLab, which published its own report on Outlier's data collection earlier in October. noyb says Outlier has more than 900,000 freelance contributors. Each authority now decides whether to open an investigation.