Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark announced the refiling of a lawsuit against Clearview AI, alleging the company violated the Vermont Consumer Protection Act by collecting and monetizing Vermonters’ facial biometric data—without consent, including data from children.
Filed in the Washington Civil Division of Vermont Superior Court, the lawsuit marks a renewed effort to hold the facial recognition company accountable after an earlier complaint was dismissed on venue grounds. The new suit asserts jurisdiction in Washington County, where the Attorney General resides by statute.
Clearview AI, a New York-based company, developed a powerful facial recognition app by scraping billions of publicly available photos from websites and social media platforms. The state claims Clearview transformed those images into a biometric database that users—including federal law enforcement and private contractors—can search by uploading photos to instantly identify individuals.
The complaint argues Clearview’s database includes sensitive information about Vermonters, often without their knowledge or consent, and specifically targets minors in violation of state data broker laws. Clearview has previously acknowledged that it knowingly possesses data on children, according to filings with Vermont’s Data Broker Registry.
“I am highly disturbed by Clearview AI’s practices, conducted without Vermonters’ knowledge, particularly the collection and sale of children’s facial recognition data,” said Attorney General Clark in a statement. “This practice violates Vermont law and is chilling in this moment when the federal government’s overreach in matters like immigration enforcement are impacting our communities here in Vermont.”
The 21-page complaint details how Clearview extracts facial features into unique mathematical vectors—commonly referred to as “faceprints”—and sells access to its biometric search engine. It names various law enforcement agencies and private companies as users of the system, while noting that Vermont consumers have no ability to opt out or remove their data.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring Clearview AI from collecting, storing, or monetizing Vermonters’ data, deletion of all existing data, restitution for affected residents, disgorgement of profits, and civil penalties of $10,000 per violation.
Residents concerned about their data being used by Clearview are encouraged to contact the state’s Consumer Assistance Program.
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