In fact, Everalbum updated its privacy policy to reflect the facial recognition side of the business only after questions from media. Then the FTC took notice, and the settlement and consent order required Everalbum to get express consent from users before feeding their images into facial recognition algorithms, as well as delete all the algorithms Everalbum had illegally built people’s private photos. As Commissioner Rohit Chopra wrote, “The case of Everalbum is a troubling illustration of just some of the problems with facial recognition.” Following this investigation, a rebrand of its surveillance technology under the name “Paravision,” and months of backlash, Everalbum finally closed its consumer photo storage business in August 2020.

Meta ended up in hot water with international regulators, faced big daily fines, and was forced to pause its release of Generative AI products in the EU and Brazil after data protection authorities raised serious privacy concerns with the company’s use of personal information for its AI service. The Irish Data Protection Commission requested the pause after “uncertainty over how Meta would train its new AI systems using Meta users’ personal data from photos, comments and other content on public posts.” The Brazilian National Data Protection Authority demanded Meta suspend its practice of using personal information published on its platform to train AI, calling the practice an imminent risk of serious harm, and threatened to fine the company almost $9,000 per day if it failed to comply.

A company that creates algorithms that landlords can use to screen tenants, called SafeRent, was sued in 2022 for creating products that could discriminate against black and brown renters who use federally-funded housing vouchers. The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development both intervened in the suit, warning SafeRent and similar providers that the Fair Housing Act applies to companies that help landlords make housing decisions.

The exercise-tracking app Strava faced a barrage of criticism after a researcher discovered that the company's Heat Map feature - which displayed aggregated exercise data on a map - revealed sensitive user activity, including the potential locations of secret U.S. military installations overseas, to the surprise of many users, including those who had adjusted separate privacy settings. Others pointed out that “anonymized” data incorporated into the Heat Map was, in fact, linkable to individual Strava users. Users seeking to opt out of the Heat Map found Strava’s privacy settings “difficult to find, understand, and use.” In a public statement, Strava bafflingly pointed users to these same controls, but not before prominent commentators called the mess-up a full-blown "data privacy debacle."