Christina Spicer  |  January 30, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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Zimride class action lawsuitAccording to an order issued by a federal judge last week, plaintiffs only have 21 days to amend the class action lawsuit accusing rideshare companies Zimride and Lyft of selling consumers’ personal information or the case will be dismissed.

Lead plaintiff Miguel Garcia filed the class action lawsuit last year in California federal court. In it, he alleges that Lyft Inc. and Enterprise Holdings Inc. d/b/a Zimride violated California law when they transmitted personal information he provided when signing up for the service to a third-party data analytics company, Mixpanel.

According to the order, “Zimride is a popular on-line ride-sharing application which matches Zimride members seeking rides with other members willing to offer rides.” To use the service, riders must sign up on the company’s website using their Facebook profile and share information from their profile, including their “public profile, friend list, email address, birthday, work history, education history, events, hometown, interests, current city, personal description and likes,” according to the website, as well as their travel destination and time.

According to the Zimride class action lawsuit, the company then sends user information including their “gender, age, zip code, metropolitan region, travel plans, [and] link to the user’s Facebook profile and unique alphanumeric identifier.” Mixpanel is a company that allegedly uses consumers’ personal information to “compile comprehensive profiles of consumers’ entire digital lives,” which can then be “sold as a commodity,” the Zimride class action lawsuit alleges.

“However,” the judge pointed out in her order, “there are no allegations in the [class action lawsuit] regarding the reason Zimride transfers information to Mixpanel.”

U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong said in her order granting Zimride and Lyft’s motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit that the plaintiffs had failed to show that either Zimride or Lyft disclosed personal information to Mixpanel outside of their function as a ridesharing program.

“[The] Plaintiff has failed to allege that either they or Zimride disclosed Plaintiff’s personal information to Mixpanel for any purpose other than establishing or implementing a rideshare or carpooling program,” wrote the judge. “There are no facts in the [class action lawsuit] regarding the reason Zimride transmits a user’s information to Mixpanel.”

“The only allegations pertaining to Plaintiff’s personal information are that information was submitted to Zimride, which, in turn, disclosed his information to Mixpanel,” Judge Armstrong continued. “Since there are no allegations that Mixpanel used—or that Defendants provided it with—Plaintiff’s personal information for any purpose prohibited … Plaintiff’s claim must fail,” she concluded.

Judge Brown also agreed with Zimride’s argument that the plaintiff consented to the use of his data. The judge pointed out that Zimride had provided documents that establish that “a user must agree to the [Terms of Service] and Privacy Policy.”

“The Privacy Policy expressly states that ‘we may share your personal information with our agents, representatives, contractors and service provider’ and that [‘b]y using the site, you do hereby represent and warrant that you have read, understand and agree to all terms of this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service,’” pointed out Judge Armstrong. “Those provisions contradict Plaintiff’s claim that he was unaware of and did not consent to the transfer of his personal information to a third party,” concluded the judge.

According to the order, the plaintiff has 21 days to amend his complaint otherwise the Zimride class action lawsuit will be dismissed with prejudice.

The Zimride User Data Class Action Lawsuit is Garcia v. Enterprise Holdings Inc., et al., Case No. 4:14-cv-00596-SBA, in the U.S.District Court for the Northern District of California.

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