Bloomingdale’s Website Wiretapping of Visitors Missouri Class Action

This Missouri class action is about intercepting and wiretapping consumers visiting a website. The complaint alleges that Bloomingdales.com, LLC “procures third-party vendors, such as FullStory, to embed snippets of JavaScript computer code (‘Session Replay Code’) on Bloomingdale’s website, which then deploys on each website visitor’s internet browser for the purpose [of] intercepting and recording the website visitor’s electronic communications with the Bloomingdale’s website…”

The class for this action is all natural persons in Missouri whose website communications were captured through the use of Session Replay Code embedded in www.bloomingdales.com.

Businesses now collect all kinds of data on consumers, including personal, engagement, behavioral, and attitudinal data. The complaint alleges, “In a consumer-driven world, the ability to capture and use customer data to shape products, solutions, and the buying experience is critically important to a business’s success.”

As part of this trend, it has become increasingly common for e-commerce sites to record the electronic communications of visitors, including their keystrokes, clicks, mouse movements, and pages visited. The third-party Session Replay providers offer code to be deployed on the site to intercept and record this information and to offer the site owners Session Replay capabilities.

When the Session Replay Code goes to a visitor’s browser, the complaint alleges, the browser responds by sending data to a third-party server. According to the complaint, that third party is the one that wrote the Session Replay Code, and not the owner of the website being visited.

“The Session Replay Providers create a video replay of the user’s behavior on the website and provide it to Bloomingdale’s for analysis[.]” the complaint alleges. “Bloomingdale’s directive to the Session Replay Providers to secretly deploy the Session Replay Code results in the electronic equivalent of ‘looking over the shoulder’ of each visitor to the Bloomingdale’s website for the entire duration of their website interaction.”

According to the complaint, this intercepting and monitoring of visitors’ electronic communications is a violation of the Missouri Wiretap Act.

The complaint alleges that Bloomingdale’s is aware that it collects information from persons located in Missouri. The complaint points out that both the website and the mobile app allow users to find a Bloomingdale’s store by location, using their own locations to search. The complaint alleges that “Bloomingdale’s is continuously made aware that its website is being visited by people located in Missouri, and that such website visitors are being wiretapped in violation [of] Missouri statutory and common law.”

The complaint alleges that consumers are concerned about the use of private information collected on them and believe that companies should obtain consent before selling or sharing data.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Intercepting Electronic Communications, Your Privacy, wiretapping