Unroll.me Class Action Claims User Data Sold to Third Parties

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UnrollMe Inc., as well as its parent company Slice Technologies Inc., face allegations that the service, which allows consumers to drop off mailing lists, sold user information to third parties such as the ride share service Uber.

Lead plaintiff Jason Cooper alleges in his class action lawsuit that unbeknownst to him, Unroll.me scanned his emails and then sold that information to third parties without permission.

The plaintiff says users provide Unroll.me access to their email accounts for the purpose of unsubscribing them from annoying reoccurring newsletters and advertisements; however, the service also secretly sold information from users for a profit.

Cooper claims Unroll.me states in its privacy policy that it “may collect, use, transfer, sell and disclose non-personal information for any purpose” and that it “may collect and use your commercial transactional messages and associated data to build anonymous market research products and services with trusted business partners.”

However, the company makes it seem like they are asking for permission to access users email accounts to allow them to unsubscribe from future mailing lists, the lawsuit states.

“What consumers don’t know — and what defendants have thus far successfully obfuscated — is that by giving UnrollMe access to their emails for the limited purpose of unsubscribing from spam, they have let the fox into the henhouse,” Cooper says. “By convincing consumers to trust UnrollMe, Slice was able to gain access to millions of consumers’ private emails, from which it analyzes, collects, and sells information to third parties.”

According to the Unroll.me class action, The New York Times broke the story that Unroll.me and Slice sold information from users about use of Lyft to ride share competitor Uber. In response, the owner of Unroll.me expressed regret that the company was not more clear about how they profit from the un-subscription service in response to The New York Times article. Additionally, the owner went on to assure users that Unroll.me sent only anonymized data to third parties that related to the information they wanted to purchase.

The plaintiff argues that Unroll.me’s promise of confidentiality is not enough. “Time and time again, researchers have revealed the ease in which they can identify particular people from purportedly anonymized data sources,” says the plaintiff in his class action. “This is particularly easy to accomplish when the dataset is taxi trips, like the Lyft data defendants sold.”

The plaintiff alleges that Unroll.me and Slice violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and Stored Communications Act when they stole and sold user data to other companies.

The plaintiff seeks to represent two Classes; a nationwide Class of those who sent or received an email while Unroll.me was installed as well as a nationwide Class of those who installed Unroll.me. The plaintiff is also seeking an injunction stopping Unroll.me and Slice from selling user data as well as damages.

Cooper is represented by Nina Eisenberg of Edelson PC.

The Unroll.me Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Jason Cooper v. Slice Technologies Inc., et al., Case No. 3:17-cv-02340, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.