Yelp Wants Out of ‘Find Friends’ Class Action Lawsuit

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In a class action lawsuit accusing mobile app developers of violating users’ privacy rights, Yelp is seeking dismissal of the claims against them by arguing that users consent to let them use their contacts lists as well as allow Yelp to upload that data.

Plaintiffs alleged in their class action lawsuit that 19 major mobile app developers, including Yelp, as well as Apple, Facebook and Twitter, covertly accessed and uploaded users’ contacts lists without permission.

According to Yelp, because users consent to Yelp accessing the data in their contacts list, they also consent to Yelp uploading that data.

Yelp argues that when users let the Yelp app access their contact information using the “Find Friends” feature, the terms of the “clickwrap” agreement cover Yelp’s access and use of users’ address books contained on their Apple devices.

In their motion, Yelp also points out that they did not sell or share user data that they uploaded; the plaintiffs’ expert, according to Yelp, noted that the information from users’ address books would have had to be moved for Yelp to enable the “Find Friends” feature and see whether any users’ contacts were also using the Yelp app.

Yelp argues that therefore users did not suffer any harm when Yelp uploaded their address books.

However, the plaintiffs claim that Yelp should not be dismissed from the class action, pointing out that Yelp could have “hashed” the data at a minimum to make it anonymous.

“Our expert did agree that some data needs to be moved from the phone to a computer, but he said what needs to be moved is a meaningless stream,” said the attorney for the plaintiffs. “If you take my diary out of my house and staple it to a telephone pole, it’s not the same as you reading it in my house.”

Additionally, the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit have asked U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar to move the trial to this coming February.

The plaintiffs’ proposed Class includes all iOS or Android mobile device owners who acquired from Apple’s AppStore, Google’s Android Market, or Amazon.com’s Appstore for Android any app that, without the owner’s prior consent, harvested the owner’s address book data, specifically including the following apps: Path, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, Gowalla, Beluga, Foodspotting, Yelp!, Hipster, Kik Messenger, LinkedIn, AngryBirds, or Cut the Rope and other unknown apps having similar address book data harvesting functionalities.

“Is a trial date in February possible?” Judge Tigar asked, then quoting writer Wallace Stegner continued, “One of the few wise sayings I am sometimes tempted to pass on to breathless posterity is that anything is possible at any time.”

The plaintiffs are represented by David M. Given, Nicholas A. Carlin and Conor H. Kennedy of Phillips Erlewine Given & Carlin LLP; Michael von Loewenfeldt, James M. Wagstaffe and Frank Busch of Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP and Carl F. Schwenker.

The Yelp Privacy Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Marc 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 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 2: 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 3: The Twitter, Instagram, Yelp App Privacy Class Action Settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim. 

UPDATE 4: 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!