User Sues Business Insider, Alleging Its Tracking Tool Violates Calif. Privacy Law
Business Insider parent Insider Inc. violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) by using a tracking tool that collects the IP addresses of visitors to its website without prior consent and a court order, alleged a class action Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-01566) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
When users visit the Business Insider website, the Audiencerate Tracker is installed on their internet browser, allowing the tracker to collect their IP addresses, the complaint said. The data monetization company then provides analytics and marketing services to Insider using data collected from visits to its websites and others that also use the tracker, it said. The tracker captures “routing, addressing, or signaling information,” which constitutes a “pen register” under CIPA because it records outgoing information, the complaint said.
Audiencerate receives users’ IP addresses every time they interact with one of Audiencerate’s clients, the complaint said. If users clear their cookies, that wipes out the tracker from cache memory, it said. The next time they visit the website, the process starts fresh. Insider’s server installs the tracker on the user’s browser, instructs the browser to send Audiencerate the user’s IP address, the tracker stores a cookie in the browser cache and Audiencerate continues to receive the IP address on subsequent website visits via the cookie, it said.
Audiencerate collects IP addresses to segment users so that it can run targeted advertising campaigns and perform data analysis, the complaint said. It bills its service as a way for companies to make better use of their customer data by monetizing it, it said.
Plaintiff Jonathan Gabrielli, an Oakland resident, visited the Business Insider website multiple times from March 2020 to December of last year on his desktop browser, the complaint said. When he did so, the website’s code, as programmed by Insider, caused the tracker to be installed on Gabrielli’s browser and then collect his IP address, it said. Insider and Audiencerate used the collected information to analyze website data and marketing campaigns, conduct targeted advertising and boost their revenue, it said.
Gabrielli didn’t give his prior consent to Insider to install or use the tracker on his browser, nor did Insider obtain a court order before installing or using the tracker, a violation of CIPA, the complaint said. Gabrielli seeks an order declaring that Insider’s conduct violates CIPA, statutory damages of $5,000 for each CIPA violation, an order of restitution, reasonable attorneys’ fees and pre- and post-judgment interest.