Class Cert. Sought in Path Mobile App Privacy Class Action Lawsuit

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A motion to certify a class action lawsuit that accuses the social media company Path Inc. of improperly obtaining their contacts through Apple mobile devices has been filed.

Lead plaintiffs alleged in their class action lawsuit filed in 2012 that Path bypassed users’ privacy settings as well as technical barriers to gain access to users’ mobile devices without authorization in order to obtain contact address data, including the personally identifiable information of minor children.

In their motion for certification of the path app class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that the class can be determined by access to Path’s registration and Apple’s download records.

“As it turns out,” plaintiffs wrote in their motion, “the Apple App Store is an extraordinarily robust platform for class notice and claims administration in cases of this kind.”

“The technology associated with downloads of apps from the Apple App Store allows for effective, direct notification and payment to members of the proposed classes,” they continued.

According to court documents filed in the path class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek to certify a class of United States residents who downloaded specific versions of the Path application from the Apple app store, along with a subclass of users who activated the Pathway app between November 2011 until February 2012.

In 2012, users discovered that Path’s social media app that allowed photo sharing and messaging was also accessing their calendar and contact information without their authorization. At that time, Path apologized and Apple changed its devices’ privacy settings.

Apple issued rules in 2010 requiring consent, but, according to the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, “Path violated Apple’s public consent rules every single day for almost three months.”

“Behind the scenes…Apple’s rules went unenforced,” continued the plaintiffs. According to the Path class action, “Apple now admits: ‘developers technically can get this content without user interaction.”

“In effect,” concluded the plaintiffs, “Apple and Path implanted and installed a bug on users’ iDevices, activated once a user registered to use the Path app.”

The present state of the class action arises from an order by a federal judge in May of 2014 that resulted in dismissal of claims against Apple Inc. and a number of app developers stemming from consolidated class actions. According to court documents, a claim for invasion of privacy remained against app developers.

The plaintiffs are represented by Phillips Erlewine & Given LLP, The Law Offices Of Carl F. Schwenker, Edwards Law, Gardy & Notis LLP, The Law Offices Of Martin S. Bakst, Strange & Carpenter, and Joseph H Malley Law Office, among others.

The Path Mobile App Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is consolidated in Opperman, et al. v. Path Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-00453 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Apr. 1, 2016, Apple and Path filed briefs opposing certification of this class action lawsuit that accuses Path of improperly obtaining users’ contacts stored on Apple devices.

UPDATE 2: On Apr. 22, 2016, Apple is seeking dismissal of a class action claim that it improperly helped developers of the Path social media app secretly access users’ address books.

UPDATE 3: On June 1, 2016, Twitter argued that the class action alleging its “Find Friends” app violates users’ privacy should be dismissed because the users allowed Twitter to access their personal contacts.

UPDATE 4: On Aug. 11, 2016, the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit accusing a host of app developers and Apple Inc. of improperly harvesting user data without permission argued that Twitter knowingly violated their privacy because it only began asking permission to access users’ address books after public outcry over the practice.

UPDATE 5: On Sept. 9, 2016, Yelp will continue to face a privacy rights class action lawsuit alleging it made unauthorized use of users’ address book data, following a federal judge’s denial of the company’s motion for summary judgment.

UPDATE 6: On April 3, 2017, several app companies, including Twitter, Yelp, and Instagram, asked a federal judge to sign off on a $5.3 million preliminary settlement deal that would resolve a mobile app privacy class action lawsuit.

UPDATE 7: The Twitter, Instagram, Yelp App Privacy Class Action Settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim. 

UPDATE 8: On June 6, 2018, Top Class Actions viewers started receivingchecks in the mailworth as much as $94.55 from a class action settlement over alleged privacy violations by developers of certain apps available on the iOS mobile app. Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!