More than 40 million people across Europe now earn income through digital labor platforms, and a substantial portion of them train the very AI systems reshaping the global economy. A new wave of GDPR complaints alleges that one major player in this space, Scale AI, turned its workforce into unwitting subjects of invasive surveillance.
Platform work spans food delivery, ride hailing, and increasingly, data annotation for artificial intelligence. Behind popular tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok sit human workers who review outputs, rank answers, and craft prompts. Those workers often hold freelance status, leaving them without social protections or stable wages. Companies have faced repeated accusations of misclassifying employees to sidestep labor law.
Scale AI operates Outlier, a data annotation platform with more than 900,000 freelance workers globally. Its client list includes Meta, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and the US government. That workforce powers some of the most advanced machine learning models in existence. Yet privacy advocates say the cost of that labor extends far beyond low pay.
A technical analysis uncovered trackers from TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Sprig, and Datadog embedded in the Outlier platform. These trackers transmitted workers’ personal data every few seconds while they remained logged in. IP addresses, contact details, unique identifiers, and browsing information all flowed to third parties. Such data enables targeted advertising and detailed profiling.
Scale AI also imposes biometric verification through a vendor called Persona. Workers must submit video recordings of their faces and upload government identification. The company defends this as fraud prevention and skills verification. But Persona suffered a major breach in October 2025, exposing roughly 70,000 ID photos. The vendor also reserves broad rights to collect geolocation, device, address, and credit data.
The privacy group noyb filed five complaints across France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. They accuse Scale AI of placing trackers without consent, violating data minimization rules, mishandling biometric information, and ignoring access requests. noyb urges regulators to investigate and impose fines substantial enough to deter future violations.
The complaints arrive as European authorities face mounting pressure to scrutinize labor practices throughout the AI supply chain. The outcome could shape how data annotation platforms operate and whether workers regain control over their personal information.
