Whirlpool Illegally Tracked Users On Its Website, Lawsuit Claims

A Florida woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Whirlpool, saying that the company tracked her use of its website in violation of her state’s privacy laws.

Plaintiff Mariana Cardoso, a Broward County resident, filed the proposed class action lawsuit on March 10 in Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit Court, accusing Whirlpool of running afoul of the Florida Security of Communications Act — which bars any kind of interception of electronic communications.

In the class action, Cardoso alleges she visited Whirlpool’s website six times, most recently in October 2020, and that Whirlpool “utilized tracking, recording, and/or session replay software” to monitor her use of the site. The class action lawsuit claims that Whirlpool kept track of her “mouse movements and clicks, information inputted into the website, and /or pages and content viewed on the website.”

Specifically, the Florida Security of Communications Act makes it a crime to “intercept, endeavor to intercept, or procure any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept any electronic communication.” The law also bars anyone from using “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.”

Cardoso never consented to allow her data to be intercepted, the class action says.

It also accuses Whirlpool of illegally tracking an unknown number of other users of its website in the state of Florida; the Class named in the lawsuit is defined as all residents of Florida who have used Whirlpool’s website and whose actions were tracked by Whirlpool.

Cardoso’s lawsuit seeks at least $100 per each day of alleged violations, or $1,000, for each Class Member, whichever is greater.

The class action lawsuit against Whirlpool mirrors three lawsuits filed earlier this year in Florida against Old Navy, Banana Republic, and NortonLifeLock.

The three nearly-identical lawsuits accused the companies of, similar to the Whirlpool lawsuit, violating the Florida Security of Communications Act by intercepting information about visitors to their websites without their knowledge or permission.

Those lawsuits were originally filed in state court in February but were removed to federal court in March.

In October 2020, a California man filed yet another similar suit against Cars.com, accusing the website of using technology to secretly record visitors’ activity in violation of California privacy laws.

Have you ever used Whirlpool Corporation’s website? Do you believe your use of the website was illegally tracked? Let us know in the comments section!

Lead plaintiff Mariana Cardoso is represented by Andrew J. Shamis of Shamis and Gentile P.A., Scott Edelsberg of Edelsberg Law P.A., and Manuel Hiraldo of Hiraldo P.A.

The Whirlpool Electronic Communications Interception Class Action Lawsuit is Cardoso v. Whirlpool Corporation, Case No. CACE21004989 in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.

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