Intelius.com Use of Individuals’ Identities for Promotion Illinois Class Action

PeopleConnect, Inc. runs the website Intelius.com that offers subscribers “detailed reports” on other people. The complaint for this class action bring suit against PeopleConnect and Intelius, LLC “to put an end to their unlawful practice of using the names and identities of Illinois residents without their consent in order to promote its service.”

The class for this action is all Illinois residents (1) whose identities were displayed on the Marketing Page and (2) who have never bought any products or services from Intelius.com.

To interest consumers its service, Intelius offers them a free “people search.” They can type in the first and last names of a person and Intelius will display data for that person, including limited but “uniquely identifying information…”

This page with an individual’s information has two purposes, the complaint claims: First, it confirms that Intelius can provide specific information on the requested person while representing that the full report will be more detailed. Second, it offers to sell them a subscription, so that they can search for other people in its database as well.

The complaint alleges, “In other words, Intelius does not offer to sell detailed reports about individuals searched on its website, but rather[] uses their identities to sell subscriptions to its paid service.” However, the complaint points out that the individuals whose names and information are being used for this promotion never gave Intelius consent to use their identities, for marketing purposes or any other reason.

This is unlawful, the complaint claims, at least in Illinois: “By using Illinois residents’ full names in its advertisements without their consent and for its commercial gain, [PeopleConnect and Intelius] violated—and continue to violate—the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (‘IRPA’)…”

IRPA was passed in 1999, establishing that each individual in the state has the “right to control and to choose whether and how [his or her] identity [is used] for commercial purposes[.]” The point, the complaint says, is “to protect individual property rights and prevent the exploitation of individuals’ identities for another’s commercial gain.”

The laws prohibits “the unauthorized use of any of their attributes, including but not limited to, their names, signatures, photographs, images, likenesses, or voices in the sale or advertisement of goods, merchandise, products, and services.” To make such a use within the person’s lifetime, the party that wishes to use the individual’s information must have gotten the individual’s previous written consent. This is true even if the individual is not a public figure.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Using Your Picture For Commercial Gain, Using Your Private Information Without Consent, Your Privacy