A law firm in Manchester is reaching out to clients to start a class action against Microsoft and Google. They suspect that these giants are collecting personal data unlawfully to train their AI models.
After two years of digging into these companies’ data practices, Barings Law believes they gather extensive information—voice data, demographic details, app usage, payment info, and more. This data probably gets used in training AI language models without users fully understanding or consenting to its use. Adnan Malik, head of data breach at Barings Law, expressed concern about how much data gets collected, noting specifics like the sports teams people follow, routes they take to work, and even their voice characteristics.
Malik emphasized that while AI technology is changing our world, it shouldn’t come at the cost of personal privacy. He insists that people deserve to know what data is being kept and how it’s being used. “They should have the option to prevent their voice, habits, and behaviors from being exploited for profit by tech companies,” he said. He compared personal data to valuable commodities like money or gold, asserting that stealing it should be treated the same way.
Barings is inviting anyone with a Microsoft or Google account—or anyone who has used their services—to join the lawsuit. This includes users of YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs, and more. The firm anticipates a flood of sign-ups and plans to kick off court proceedings in early 2025.
In the U.S., Microsoft and OpenAI are facing a separate class-action suit for allegedly violating privacy rights by scraping personal data to train AI chatbots. Filed in late June, that lawsuit seeks $3 billion in damages. Google faces a similar suit from the same law firm, claiming they’ve misappropriated data for their AI chatbot, Bard, now known as Gemini. The lawsuit accuses Google of effectively stealing content created and shared online by millions of Americans.
Malik sees the cases as part of a broader concern about data security. He said that if anyone feels disturbed about their data being used without permission, they should act. “Join the fight,” he urged. “Let’s take control of our data and the future of AI.”
Computer Weekly reached out to Microsoft and Google for comments on the lawsuit. Microsoft declined to respond, and Google had no reply by the time of publication. Other AI developers are arguing about their use of personal data. They claim it falls under “fair use,” allowing limited use of copyrighted material without permission for purposes like teaching and research.
In a recent lawsuit, Anthropic AI defended its practices by stating that its use of copyrighted material for training does not harm the original creators. They argued that if AI companies had to pay for such materials, general-purpose AI tools wouldn’t be viable. They contend there’s no realistic way to gather the diverse data needed for training without utilizing publicly available content.