Whitebridge AI accused of selling inaccurate reputation reports without consent
A Lithuania-based AI company was accused in a formal complaint of scraping personal data from social media and news to generate and sell reputation reports on individuals. The reports reportedly contain inaccurate and sensitive information without proper consent or transparency, denying people free access to their own data despite GDPR rights.
What happened
Whitebridge AI marketed and sold AI-generated reputation reports that compile data scraped from social media, news, and other online resources about individuals with an online presence.
The reports contain alleged personality traits, sensitive content flags such as 'sexual nudity' or 'dangerous political content,' and photos, often of low factual quality and containing misinformation.
The company targeted both affected individuals and third parties, selling these reports and denying people free access to their own data, despite legal rights under GDPR.
Reported impact
Individuals impacted by Whitebridge's reputation reports face emotional distress, invasion of privacy and reputational damage due to false or sensitive claims being made about them.
The case highlights the urgent need for stronger transparency, accountability and legal enforcement in AI-driven data brokering.
Index analysis
Whitebridge AI claims compliance with data protection laws by appealing to 'freedom to conduct a business,' but was found to disregard multiple GDPR provisions by not having a valid legal basis for this data processing, ignoring data access requests, and requiring arbitrary 'qualified electronic signatures' for data corrections.
Governance controls
Whitebridge AI's business model relies on scraping substantial amounts of personal information and generating reports in order to profit from users seeking to review or correct their own data.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.