ACLU v Clearview AI (Illinois BIPA settlement)

Permanent

Ban on selling the database to most private businesses, nationwide

Consent judgment, 9 May 2022

5 years

Ban on Illinois state and local government clients

Consent judgment

23%

Equity stake offered to the federal class, settlement vacated 13 July 2026

Seventh Circuit opinion No. 25-1673

What happened?

On 28 May 2020 the ACLU and a group of Illinois organisations serving survivors of sexual violence, undocumented immigrants and sex workers sued Clearview in Cook County under BIPA, which requires informed written consent before a private company captures a person's faceprint. Clearview moved to dismiss on First Amendment grounds and lost. In parallel, consumer class actions from several states were consolidated in the Northern District of Illinois.

1. 2020-05-28

   ACLU files in Cook County

   Claims under BIPA on behalf of vulnerable Illinois residents.

2. 2021-08-27

   Motion to dismiss denied

   The court rejects Clearview's First Amendment defence at the pleading stage.

3. 2022-05-09

   Consent judgment

   Nationwide ban on private sales; five-year Illinois government ban; opt-out for Illinois residents.

4. 2025-03-20

   Federal class settlement approved

   Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman approves a 23% equity stake for the class.

5. 2026-01-28

   Seventh Circuit argument

   Objectors challenge the settlement structure.

6. 2026-07-13

   Approval vacated

   Seventh Circuit remands for lack of separate representation of the nationwide class.

What did the parties agree?

• Clearview is permanently barred from granting access to its face database to private companies and individuals in the United States, with narrow exceptions such as some banks under a federal statute.
• Illinois state and local government agencies, including police, are barred for five years.
• Illinois residents can submit a photo to be blocked from search results; Clearview must keep an opt-out form and spend on advertising it.
• Clearview must filter out photos geolocated in Illinois and stop offering free trials to police officers without their employer's approval.

Why does it matter for face search?

The consent judgment is the reason Clearview is a government-only vendor in the United States and the clearest example of a state biometric statute changing a face search engine's business model nationwide. For consumer engines, the Illinois opt-out mechanism and the ban on selling to private parties are the terms a BIPA plaintiff would seek. The federal litigation is also notable for the first attempt to settle a BIPA class with equity rather than cash, now undone.

What happened next?

The federal class, covering everyone in the United States whose face appears in the index, agreed to take 23% of Clearview's equity (valued at about USD 51.75 million against a USD 225 million company valuation) instead of cash the company did not have. Judge Coleman approved the deal on 20 March 2025. On 13 July 2026 the Seventh Circuit vacated the approval in In re Clearview AI, Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation, No. 25-1673, because the nationwide class had no separate representative and counsel from the state sub-classes, and remanded. The equity structure itself was not held unlawful. The case was pending on remand as of 6 November 2026. The Illinois Supreme Court's reading of BIPA in Rosenbach and Cothron shaped the exposure that drove both settlements.