European privacy group noyb filed five complaints against Scale AI on Tuesday, October 27, alleging the company illegally monitored the freelance workers who produce training data for AI models. Why it matters: the case targets the human workforce behind the data used by major AI labs — and asks European regulators to fine Scale AI and scrutinize how its Outlier platform assigns work.
October 27, 2026
What happened?
According to Reuters, noyb filed the complaints in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria. They target Outlier, Scale AI’s platform where more than 900,000 freelancers perform tasks that are recorded to create AI training data for clients such as Meta, OpenAI and Google. Meta owns 49% of Scale AI, Reuters reported.
noyb is asking regulators to fine Scale AI and to examine how the platform assigns tasks to workers.
What do the complaints allege?
The complaints seen by Reuters said up to 19 trackers follow workers while they work, including recording keystrokes and mouse movements every few seconds. An investigation by Paris-based research collective DiPLab found the resulting file could be rebuilt into a video that replays a work session from start to finish.
Workers must also submit ID documents and face video to identity verification firm Persona. The complaints said those checks were invasive, were repeated without explanation, and broke EU rules on biometric data.
The complaints also point to how work is incentivized. Outlier uses game-like mechanisms, and bonuses are a key part of its incentive system, DiPLab found. Researcher Thomas Le Bonniec, who spent two years studying the platform for DiPLab, said Outlier offered bonuses of $100 to $200 for completing 200 tasks in 24 hours, citing interviews with workers. He noted Italy’s data protection authority fined delivery platform Glovo in 2021 over similar gamification.
Four workers asked Outlier for copies of their data between December 2025 and May 2026. None received an answer, the complaints said.
What has Scale AI said?
Scale did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported. The complaints are allegations at this stage — no regulator ruling was reported in the Reuters story.
Le Bonniec summarized the workers’ position this way: “You don’t work when you want. You work when the platform wants you to and there are tasks available.”
Why it matters
Frontier AI models depend on large amounts of human-produced training and evaluation data, and Outlier is one of the platforms supplying that work at scale. If European regulators act on these complaints, the consequences would not be limited to one company’s HR practices: tracking limits, biometric verification rules and data-access duties would shape how every AI data platform can monitor the freelancers it relies on. For buyers of AI training data — including the labs named as Outlier clients — it is also a supply-chain question: how the data was produced, and under what oversight, is becoming part of the product.
That is the “everything AI, tested” angle here: the test is no longer just what a model can do, but whether the human work underneath it was collected lawfully. Watch for responses from Scale AI and from the four national regulators named in the filings.
Frequently asked questions
Who filed the complaints against Scale AI?
European digital privacy advocacy group noyb filed five complaints on October 27, 2026, in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria, according to Reuters.
What is Outlier?
Outlier is Scale AI’s platform where more than 900,000 freelancers perform tasks that are recorded to create AI training data for clients such as Meta, OpenAI and Google, Reuters reported.
What monitoring is alleged?
The complaints said up to 19 trackers follow workers, including recording keystrokes and mouse movements every few seconds, and that identity checks involving ID documents and face video broke EU biometric-data rules.
What is noyb asking regulators to do?
Noyb is asking regulators to fine Scale AI and to examine how the Outlier platform assigns tasks, Reuters reported.
Sources: Reuters