Roblox, YouTube, others face class action lawsuits over AI, ads, data privacy

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Technology class action lawsuits overview: 

• Who: Technology companies including Google, Roblox, Microsoft, YouTube and others have recently been in the news.  
• Why: The companies have collectively been in the headlines over class action lawsuits, a data breach and a commitment to safely rolling out artificial intelligence technology. 
• Where: Nationwide.

Technology companies such as Google, Roblox and Microsoft, among others, have been in the headlines recently in response to class action claims, a data breach and a commitment among artificial intelligence (AI) industry leaders to a safe and responsible deployment. 

Google accused of misleading business owners about views they receive for TrueView YouTube ads

A class action lawsuit was filed against Google last month by a pair of business owners claiming the company misrepresented the actual reach of its TrueView YouTube advertisements. 

Google is accused of inflating the number of views a businesses’ YouTube ads are purported to receive, in part by allegedly placing the advertisements on “questionable” websites. 

“If a video advertisement autoplays for a bot on an unlisted webpage, does anyone hear it?” the YouTube class action states. 

The business owners argue Google ultimately charges “hefty amounts” for advertisements that they claim are ultimately automatically played “into the void,” despite allegedly promising the ads will be played on high-quality sites. 

Microsoft collects browsing data of Edge users without consent, class action alleges

A group of consumers filed a class action lawsuitagainst Microsoft in July, alleging the technology company programmed its Edge browser to collect users’ browsing data without first obtaining consent. 

The consumers claim Microsoft violates both state and federal privacy laws by allegedly sending browsing data that is unique to each of its users to a separate server, without having consent to do so. 

“Defendant intercepts, collects, and sends users’ keyword search terms, URLs, and unique user identifiers and cookies to the SmartScreen and Bing servers without their actual or implied consent,” the Microsoft class action states. 

Microsoft is accused of violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The company announced in June it would be shutting down Internet Explorer and asked users at that time to switch to Microsoft Edge. 

Artists given chance to refile claims companies infringed on copyrights by using their art to train AI art generators

A federal judge in San Francisco said last month that he was inclined to throw out nearly every part of a lawsuit claiming AI-art companies Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt infringed on copyright while training the AI art generator, Stabile Diffusion AI. 

A group of artists argue the AI companies infringed on their copyrights by allegedly using their artwork to train AI-art generators without their permission and without compensating them for their work. 

The judge, meanwhile, said the artists would need to clearly state exact claims against each of the AI companies and give facts about the alleged copyright infringement as it relates to their intellectual property. 

The artists, who will have a chance to refile, must also prove that their individual art pieces were used in the training process for the Stabile Diffusion AI program, which was trained on a total of five billion compressed images. 

Roblox discloses data breach that exposed data of nearly 4,000 Roblox Developer Conference attendees

Online game platform Roblox disclosed last month it suffered a major data breach that it said leaked personal information belonging to nearly 4,000 individuals who attended its Roblox Developer Conference from between 2017 and 2020. 

The information exposed in the data breach — which reportedly originally dates back to December 2020 — includes names, birthdates and physical addresses of Roblox conference attendees, the game developer said. 

The data breach was brought to the attention of the public last month by Troy Hunt, creator of the website Have I Been Pwned, who said on the social media site formerly known as Twitter that he had been notified by multiple people that private data had been published online. 

Leading AI companies agree to abide by White House parameters created for AI tech rollout

Leading AI companies Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI voluntarily agreed last month to abide by parameters set by President Joe Biden’s administration for the rollout of AI. 

The parameters were created to help ensure AI technology is deployed in a safe manner and that it is fully vetted — including internal and external testing — before being released to the public. 

“These commitments, which the companies have chosen to undertake immediately, underscore three principles that must be fundamental to the future of AI – safety, security and trust – and mark a critical step toward developing responsible AI,” the White House said in a statement. 

Have you been affected by a class action lawsuit involving a technology company? Let us know in the comments! 

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