This class action does not concern any defects in General Motors, LLC’s automobiles. Rather, it claims that General Motors (GM) intercepts electronic communications from visitors to its website. It claims that GM uses “session replay” software that records all of a visitor’s interactions with its website, such as mouse movements, clicks, information entered, and pages viewed, in violation of the Florida Security of Communications Act (FSCA).
The class for this action is all persons living in Florida (1) who visited GM’s website and (2) whose electronic communications were intercepted by GM or on GM’s behalf (3) without their prior consent.
More and more companies seem to be using so-called session replay to record every action of visitors to their websites. This software records every move made by visitors, including mouse moves, clicks, pages viewed and the length of time spent on them, and information entered, eve if the visitors never clicked Submit to pass the information on to the company.
The company can later replay these sessions, or website visits, for its own purposes, including evaluating visitors’ experiences and targeting them with advertising. The complaint alleges that GM has violated the law not only by intercepting communications but by using them.
Plaintiff Cheryl Leace says she has visited GM’s website approximately four time during the past year. During each of these times, the complaint says, she was located in Florida. The complaint alleges that during at least one of those visits, GM used session replay software to intercept and record her actions at the website, without first getting her consent.
Leace, the complaint alleges, “did not have a reasonable opportunity to discover [GM’s] unlawful interceptions because [GM] did not disclose or seek [her] consent to intercept the communications.” The same is true, it claims, of other visitors to the website who were located in Florida. It claims that Leace and other visitors “had an expectation of privacy during their visits to [GM’s] website, which [GM] violated by intercepting their electronic communications with the website.”
The complaint quotes the law to claim that Leace and each member of the class are “entitled to ‘liquidated damages computed at the rate of $100 a day for each day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher[.]”
It also asks for a declaration by the court that GM’s action violated the Florida law and an injunction that forbids GM from repeating its actions and intercepting any further communications at its website without visitors’ knowledge and consent.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Privacy
Most Recent Case Event
General Motors Recording of Visitors at Website Florida Complaint
April 2, 2021
This class action does not concern any defects in General Motors, LLC’s automobiles. Rather, it claims that General Motors (GM) intercepts electronic communications from visitors to its website. It claims that GM uses “session replay” software that records all of a visitor’s interactions with its website, such as mouse movements, clicks, information entered, and pages viewed, in violation of the Florida Security of Communications Act (FSCA).
General Motors Recording of Visitors at Website Florida ComplaintCase Event History
General Motors Recording of Visitors at Website Florida Complaint
April 2, 2021
This class action does not concern any defects in General Motors, LLC’s automobiles. Rather, it claims that General Motors (GM) intercepts electronic communications from visitors to its website. It claims that GM uses “session replay” software that records all of a visitor’s interactions with its website, such as mouse movements, clicks, information entered, and pages viewed, in violation of the Florida Security of Communications Act (FSCA).
General Motors Recording of Visitors at Website Florida Complaint