Randall-Reilly Rental of Subscriber Information Michigan Class Action

Randall-Reilly, LLC publishes books, newsletters, and magazines. But the complaint for this class action alleges that it profits in another way as well: renting, exchanging, or otherwise disclosing the Private Reading Information and other information about the subscribers to its publications, without their consent. The complaint alleges this violates Michigan’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act (PPPA).

The class for this action is all Michigan residents who, at any point in the relevant pre-July 31, 2016 period, had their Private Reading Information disclosed to third parties by Randall-Reilly without their consent.

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 customers that indicates the identity of the customer.”

But the complaint alleges that Randall-Reilly violates this law by disclosing information about its subscribers and their reading material to data aggregators, data cooperatives, and list brokers, who in turn pass the information on to advertisers, political organizations, nonprofits, and even scammers. This, the complaint claims, results in the subscribers receiving a barrage of junk mail, among other things.

How do we know that the company is offering this information? The complaint reproduces a page from the website of NextMark, Inc., a list broker, which offers to rent a “Randall Reilly Magazine Subscriber Masterfile Mailing List” for a base price of $150 per thousand. The fact that this information is rented rather than sold, the complaint says, means that Randall-Reilly can profit from its use over and over again.

The complaint alleges that this renting of data is not just against the law; it is also dangerous, because it can be used to target vulnerable persons. “In addition to causing waste and inconvenience,” the complaint claims, “direct-mail advertisers often use consumer information to lure unsuspecting consumers into various scams, including fraudulent sweepstakes, charities, and buying clubs.”

This indiscriminate spreading of private information can be particularly harmful when the information concerns the elderly, who tend to be at home, who may be lonely to talk to telephone callers, and who may have available cash reserves. The complaint alleges, “Indeed, an entire black market exists where the private information of vulnerable elderly Americans is exchanged.”

According to the complaint, Randall-Reilly has never asked for its subscribers’ permission to disclose their personal information. Consumers can get subscriptions through a number of different means, and the complaint alleges, but none of these asks for consent to share information. Thus, the complaint claims, “Randall-Reilly uniformly failed to obtain any form of consent from—or even provide effective notice to—its customers before disclosing their Private Reading Information.”

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