Playboy Website Uses Software to Track Visitors Florida Class Action

This class action brings suit against Playboy Enterprises, Inc. for the interception of electronic communications, under the Florida Security of Communications Act (FSCA). The complaint alleges that Playboy uses “session replay” software that allow it to record visitors’ interactions with the website, including mouse movements and clicks, information entered, and content viewed. The complaint says Playboy keeps this information for later use, and it does all this without the permission or consent of the visitor involved.

The class for this action is all persons living in Florida who visited Playboy’s website and whose electronic communications were intercepted, by Playboy or someone acting on its behalf, without the prior consent of the persons.

Previous lawsuits have been brought against companies for this kind of session recording under federal wiretapping laws. This class action takes a different tack, bringing suit under Florida state privacy law.

The complaint makes several statements about the FSCA: “It is a violation of the FSCA to intercept, endeavor to intercept, or procure any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept any electronic communication.” Also, “it is a violation to intentionally use, or endeavor to use, ‘the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication…”

Further, “The FSCA defines ‘intercept’ as the ‘acquistion of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other device.” The law defines “electronic communications” as “any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photooptical system that affects intrastate, interstate, or foreign commerce…”

Plaintiff Lathario Scott has visited Playboy’s www.playboy.com website roughly eight or nine times during the past year, most recently in April 2020. Each time he did this, he was located in Florida. The complaint alleges that during one or more of these visits, Playboy used software to intercept, track, and record Scott’s use of and interaction with the website.

The complaint alleges that Playboy does this “for its own financial gain and in violation of the [subjects’] privacy rights under the FSCA.”

The complaint says, “[Scott] was never notified that his electronic communications were being intercepted, and [Scott] never consented to interception of his electronic communications by [Playboy].”

According to the complaint, Playboy owes Scott and other class members the damages set forth in the law: “liquidated damages computed at the rate of $100 a day for each day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher[.]”

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