Samsung Electronics America Failure to Safeguard PII Class Action

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. announced that it had suffered a data breach on September 2, 2022. The complaint for this class action alleges that this data breach was a result of Samsung’s failure to properly secure its systems and safeguard the personally identifiable information (PII) it had acquired and stored on its customers. It also claims that Samsung delayed in telling customers that their information had been accessed.

The class for this action is all persons who bought or used Samsung products in the US, and whose PII was compromised as a result of the July 2022 data breach. A Texas Subclass has also been defined, for those in the above class in Texas.

The data breach took place in late July, and Samsung has confirmed that the information stolen included name, contact and demographic information, date of birth, and product registration information. In a footnote, the complaint says that the meaning of “demographic information” is unclear, and alleges, “One tech publication believes it may include GPS location data.”

In any case, the complaint alleges that Samsung did not reveal the exact dates of the intrusion, how long the hackers had access to the information, or how many people were affected.

The complaint alleges, “The Data Breach was a result of Samsung’s failure to properly secure and safeguard … sensitive personal information stored within its network and servers.” It says Samsung only began notifying the individual victims on September 2, 2022. But the complaint also says, “As of the date of this filing, it is unclear if Samsung has provided notice to all impacted individuals.”

The complaint claims that Samsung “maintained the PII in a reckless and negligent manner” and that it exposed people to harm by intentionally, willfully, recklessly, or negligently failing to take adequate and reasonable measures to ensure its data systems were protected against unauthorized intrusions[,]” among other things.

According to its US Privacy Policy, Samsung collects information on its customers for a number of reasons, including providing product support, offering both targeted and generic ads, and collecting user data for its own market research purposes, among other things.

The complaint alleges, “By obtaining, collecting, using, and deriving a benefit from Plaintiff’s and Class members’ PII, [Samsung] assumed legal and equitable duties and knew or should have known that it was responsible for protecting Plaintiff’s and Class Members’ PII from unauthorized disclosure.”

The same data that the company announced the data breach, the complaint alleges that it also updated its privacy policy, adding that Samsung may track users’ physical locations by their devices, for security or advertising purposes, with separate consent, and that it may retain user content shared with the Quick Share feature for up to three days.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Exposing Private Information, Exposure to cyber crime, Your Privacy