Photobucket class action claims company wants to sell customer images

Photobucket class action overview: 

• Who: A group of former Photobucket users filed a class action lawsuit accusing the cloud storage company.
• Why: The plaintiffs say the company unlawfully used their photos for training artificial intelligence.
• Where: The Photobucket class action was filed in a Colorado federal court.

A group of former Photobucket users filed a class action lawsuit accusing the cloud storage company of unlawfully using their photos for artificial intelligence (AI) and biometric purposes without proper consent. 

Plaintiffs Mac Pierce, Niki Hughes, Sean Hughes and Valerie Cumming, filed the class action complaint against Photobucket Inc. on Dec. 11 in a Colorado federal court, alleging violations of copyright laws, biometric privacy regulations and consumer protection statutes.

According to the lawsuit, Photobucket’s shift from a photo storage platform to an AI industry player violates the rights of millions of users. 

The plaintiffs allege that Photobucket is leveraging its archive of 13 billion photos to train AI algorithms, create biometric facial recognition databases, and even generate “deepfake” images. 

“Photobucket is threatening to sell Plaintiffs’ images to third parties who can use them to create biometric facial recognition databases that intrude on Plaintiffs’ privacy,” the lawsuit says.

Photobucket took silence as implied consent, lawsuit alleges

The plaintiffs argue that Photobucket retroactively imposed consent for these uses through “coercive and deceptive” tactics. 

The company allegedly sent emails warning users to log in or risk losing their photos, then presented terms requiring consent for AI and biometric applications. For inactive accounts, Photobucket treated silence as implied consent, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs claim these tactics breach prior user agreements, which required explicit consent for new terms. 

They also highlight that many individuals appearing in photos were never Photobucket users and therefore did not consent to any terms. 

“Photobucket’s strongarm tactics… are illegal,” the complaint says. “Many class members are persons who appear in photographs that friends and family uploaded to Photobucket but who have never been Photobucket customers themselves.”

As a result, the plaintiffs are looking to represent anyone who uploaded photographs to Photobucket at any time between Jan. 1, 2003, and May 1, 2024, plus anyone who did not upload photos but who appeared in them.

They are suing for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, and similar statutes in New York, California and Virginia. The plaintiffs are seeking certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and an injunction to stop Photobucket from licensing photos for AI and biometric purposes. It also calls for the retrieval of any photos already licensed to third parties. 

Meanwhile, consumers recently filed class action lawsuits against Steak ‘n Shake, Capital One, Talkspace, Jaguar Land Rover and Twilio accusing the companies of unlawfully collecting, sharing and/or tracking consumer data without consent. 

What do you think of the allegations in this Photobucket class action? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Daniel Twetten, Mike Kanovitz, Jon Loevy, Tom Hanson, Aaron Tucek and Isaac Green of Loevy & Loevy.

The Photobucket class action lawsuit is Mac Pierce et al. v. Photobucket Inc. et al., Case No. 1:24-cv-03432  in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

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