Farm Journal Disclosure of Subscriber Information Michigan Class Action

Farm Journal, Inc. (FJI), which does business as Farm Journal Media, publishes Farm Journal magazine. The complaint for this class action claims that FJI violates Michigan’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act (PPPA) by offering access to its Farm Journal subscribers’ mailing list, which reveals Farm Journal to be part of their Private Reading Information. The complaint alleges that FJI shares the information with data aggregators, data cooperatives and list brokers, without the subscribers’ consent.

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 FJI without their consent. (The PPPA was amended as of July 31, 2016.)

The complaint quotes the PPPA as saying, “[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.”

How do we know that FJI shares this information? The complaint shows a screenshot of a webpage from list broker NextMark, Inc., offering to rent out a “Farm Journal Media Agricultural Email Masterfile Mailing List,” which involves the Private Reading Information of almost a million and a half of FJI’s US subscribers, at a base price of $400 per thousand.

Once the information is sold to data aggregators, data cooperatives, and list brokers, the complaint alleges, these parties pass it on to what the complaint calls “aggressive advertisers, political organizations, and [nonprofit] companies.” The first result is likely to be “a barrage of unwanted junk mail[,]” the complaint claims, but it can also be dangerous because it can permit dishonest parties to target vulnerable members of society.

“In addition to causing waste and inconvenience,” the complaint alleges, “direct-mail advertisers often use consumer information to lure unsuspecting consumers into various scams, including fraudulent sweepstakes, charities, and buying clubs.” They often target the elderly, the complaint claims, because they are generally at home, may be lonely, and may have cash reserves or assets that they can access if offers seem attractive.

Consumers are able to sign up for Farm Journal subscriptions through different avenues, but the complaint claims that they were never asked to consent to any terms of service, privacy policy, or other information-sharing agreement during the time covered by this class action. FJI, the complaint says, therefore has not obtained its customers’ consent to the sharing of their information.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties, Your Privacy