Bottom Line Subscriber Information Shared Without Consent Michigan Class Action

Boardroom, Inc., which does business as Bottom Line, Inc., publishes a newsletter the Bottom Line Personal newsletter. But does it keep confidential the subscriber information it collects? The complaint for this class action alleges that, on the contrary, it shares detailed information about its subscribers with parties like data aggregators, data cooperatives, and list brokers, without first getting its subscribers’ consent. This, the complaint alleges, is a violation of Michigan’s Personal Privacy Protection Act (PPPA).

The class for this action is all Michigan residents who, at any time during the pre-July 31, 2016 time period, had their Private Reading Information disclosed to third parties by Bottom Line without their consent.

When the PPPA was passed, the Michigan legislature chose to make it a matter of law “that a person’s choice in reading, music, and video entertainment is a private matter, and not a fit subject for consideration by gossipy publications, employers, clubs, or anyone else for that matter.”

Michigan’s amendment to its PPPA went into effect on July 31, 2016; the statutory period in this case is six years, that is, extending back to June 10, 2016.

The complaint quotes the PPPA as saying that a “person, or an employee or agent of the person, engaged in the business of selling at retail, renting, or lending books or other written materials … shall not disclose to any person, other than the customer, a record or information concerning the purchase … of those materials by a customer that indicates the identity of the customer.”

The complaint alleges that Bottom Line “rents, exchanges, or otherwise discloses its customers’ information—including their full names, titles of publications subscribed to, and home addresses … as well as myriad other categories of individualized data and demographic information … to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and other third parties without the written consent of its customers.”

How do we know this? The complaint reproduces a web page from NextMark, Inc., a list broker, entitled, Bottom Line Enhanced Masterfile (formerly Boardroom) Mailing List” for a base price of $115 per thousand. The complaint alleges that Bottom Line rents, exchanges, or otherwise discloses this information to increase its revenues.

The complaint alleges that this is not just unlawful but also dangerous: “In addition to causing waste and inconvenience, direct-mail advertisers often use consumer information to lure unsuspecting consumers into various scams, including fraudulent sweepstakes, charities, and buying clubs.” The complaint alleges the information may be sold to criminals, fraudulent telemarketers, and others who are working scams, which frequently target the elderly.

According to the complaint, Bottom Line does not ask for its customers’ consent to the disclosure of their information, and customers are not aware that their Private Reading Information is being rented and exchanged. Customers subscribe to the newsletter through various outlets, the complaint claims, and are never asked to agree to any information-sharing policy when they sign up.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties, Using Your Private Information Without Consent, Your Privacy