Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.
Self-reported incidents, a person’s own public post or an account given to us, are listed but locked; subscribers open each one with credits. Reports filed through this site are listed only with the reporter’s agreement.
Press reportingSelf-reported: a person’s own public post · 10 creditsSelf-reported: told to us directly · 25 credits
Police surrounded a couple's home and pointed guns at them after a Flock camera lead incorrectly associated their vehicle with a crime.
Zillow Group, Inc. is accused of making false and misleading statements to investors about its Zillow Offers home-flipping business. The company allegedly failed to disclose that its forecasting algorithm was unable to predict home prices accurately, leading to a $304 million inventory write-down and a decision to wind down the business. Investors who bought shares between February 10 and November 2, 2021, suffered losses when the stock price dropped after the announcement. A class action lawsuit has been filed in Washington federal court.
In November 2020, Julie Moynat, a web accessibility consultant, tweeted criticism of FACIL'iti, an accessibility product. FACIL'iti sent a formal notice to her employer and later subpoenaed her for denigration in May 2021. Moynat is raising funds for her legal defense. The case is ongoing at the Judiciary Tribunal of Paris.
Dr Mary Fairhurst claimed that a Ring doorbell and security cameras installed by her neighbour Jon Woodard unlawfully captured images of her property and audio of her conversations. The judge ruled that the devices breached UK data laws and contributed to harassment. Mr Woodard now faces a substantial fine.
The South Korean government transferred approximately 170 million facial images of travelers obtained during immigration screening at Incheon International Airport to private companies for AI development without obtaining consent. The data included images of South Korean and foreign nationals. The project, an AI identification and tracking system, is ongoing. Critics call it a violation of digital rights at an unprecedented scale.
Tesla voluntarily recalled 11,704 vehicles after identifying a software error in its Full Self-Driving Beta system that could cause false forward-collision warnings or unexpected automatic emergency braking. The error, a communication disconnect between two on-board chips, was introduced in an over-the-air update on October 23, 2021. Tesla stated it was not aware of any crashes or injuries and issued a software fix. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is monitoring the situation.
The Civil Aviation Authority trialled facial recognition technology at Wellington Airport to count passengers and measure queue wait times. The Privacy Commissioner expressed serious concerns, calling the use of facial recognition unnecessary and a privacy risk. The Authority stated it has strict measures to protect privacy.
The Meituan food delivery app was found to track users' locations every five minutes, even when not in use, as revealed by Apple's iOS 15 Record App Activity feature. Users on Chinese social media complained about the privacy invasion. A Meituan engineer stated that the software reads system operation logs for selective displaying, and that similar tactics are used by other mainstream apps.
Huq, a location data vendor, obtained GPS coordinates from Android apps even when users explicitly opted out of data sharing within the app settings. Researchers and Motherboard found that apps like Network Signal Info and QR & Barcode Scanner transmitted location data to Huq despite settings stating no data would be shared. Huq said it is investigating and will work with app publishers to fix the issue. The data collection raises concerns about consent and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Delhi Police used an Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) to screen crowds at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally on December 22, 2019. The system, originally installed to find missing children, was used to identify possible disruptions. Privacy advocates called the move illegal and unconstitutional, saying it amounts to mass surveillance. Police defended the use, citing credible intelligence about possible disruptions.
Harvard student Yuen Ler Chow created FaceTag, a facial recognition app that allows users to scan fellow students' faces to obtain their names and contact information. The app has raised privacy and ethical concerns among students and faculty, though Chow has implemented a permission feature to address some issues. No actual harm has been reported.
Facebook's news feed ranking algorithm, starting in 2017, gave emoji reactions like 'angry' five times the weight of 'likes', pushing more emotional and provocative content to users. Internal documents revealed this design aimed to increase engagement, but it also fostered rage and misinformation. The article reports that this algorithmic change had widespread effects on users' news feeds, though no specific individual harm is detailed.
Workers at Gorillas delivery service in Berlin went on strike after an algorithm used for shift scheduling failed to comply with legal rest periods, causing shifts to be scheduled too close together. The algorithm, part of Project ACE, also generated incorrect warnings for missed shifts, leading to unfair firings. The workers demand full and timely payment of salaries, improved shift plans, and proper equipment. Management promised negotiations but instead hired private security to lock workers out.
Author Artem Russakovskii discovered that his Google Home Mini was recording all sounds in his bathroom 24/7 and sending them to Google servers due to a hardware defect causing phantom touch events. The device activated thousands of times per day without the hotword. Google acknowledged the issue, issued a software update to disable the top touch functionality, and removed all affected recordings from their servers. The company stated the defect affected a small number of early release devices.
Primary School No. 2 in Gdansk used a biometric fingerprint reader to identify students for meal payment verification. The system processed the biometric data of 680 children without a valid legal basis, as the school could have used alternative identification methods. The Polish Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) imposed a fine of PLN 20,000 ($5,300) and ordered the erasure of the data. The authority also noted that students without biometric identification were required to wait at the end of the queue, constituting unequal treatment.
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On August 28, on the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, a woman driving an SUV with driver assistance engaged rear-ended a bus that suddenly changed lanes. She assumed the system would brake automatically and took no action. The bus driver was found at fault for the lane change, but police warned against over-reliance on driver assistance.
The Spanish NGO Civio won a Supreme Court case forcing the government to release the source code of BOSCO, the algorithm that decides eligibility for the social electricity bonus (bono social eléctrico). Civio had demonstrated in 2019 that BOSCO contained serious errors that denied the benefit to vulnerable people who met the requirements. The government had refused to disclose the code, citing intellectual property. The Supreme Court ruled that transparency must prevail, setting a precedent for public access to automated decision-making systems.
The Nigerian government has begun collecting fingerprints and photos of children as young as five for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme. The biometric enrollment aims to confirm eligibility and increase transparency, but the exercise has started before the country's data protection law comes into effect. The motives for collection are unclear, and there have been technical issues with the enrollment tablets. The program already feeds nine million children daily.
A woman in Moscow was arrested on 1 March 2022 after she posted a coded protest message on social media. She believes she was detected by facial-recognition software on the Moscow Metro system. The authorities presented a screenshot of her tweet in her court hearing. The article reports that she was arrested while taking a train, five days after her post.
Hackers used deep voice technology to impersonate a person and steal $35 million. The Dubai Public Prosecution Office is investigating the money laundering that occurred in January 2020. The United States Department of Justice filed an application to assist the UAE in collecting evidence.
Residents of a dead-end street in San Francisco's Richmond District say Waymo self-driving cars have been driving down their street and making U-turns every five minutes for six to eight weeks. The constant hum of the vehicles has become a nuisance for neighbours working from home. Waymo said the cars were obeying road rules, taking a U-turn due to Slow Streets signage on Lake, and that it continually adjusts to dynamic San Francisco road rules.
A Japanese man was arrested by Kyoto Prefectural Police for using a deep-learning video-clarifying tool called TecoGAN to de-pixelate over 2,500 pornographic video files. The man allegedly earned over $96,000 from this activity. He is accused of violating both copyright and obscenity laws, and has reportedly admitted to the charges. This is reportedly the first arrest of its kind in Japan.
Facial recognition cameras have been introduced in UK school canteens. The Financial Times reports on this development.
Taiwanese YouTuber Chu Yu-chen, known as Xiaoyu, was arrested and released on bail for allegedly creating and selling deepfake porn videos featuring over 100 politicians and influencers. The videos were made by superimposing faces onto existing pornographic content using deep learning technology, without consent. Victims, including Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie, filed legal proceedings, and the Ministry of Justice began drafting amendments to address deepfakes.
Each incident is written from the reporting or the account it cites. A report is an allegation, not a finding.
