Class Action Says Aaron’s Spied Through Rental Computers

Last week, a Georgia federal judge allowed a class action lawsuit accusing furniture rental company Aaron’s Inc. of using rental computers to secretly survey users to proceed.

Lead plaintiffs allege that Aaron’s and Aspen Way Enterprises Inc., the computer company used to provide the rental computers, installed spyware that tracked users’ keystrokes and photographed them through webcams. The class action lawsuit alleges that Aspen Way and Aaron’s collected private information about users, including credit and debit card numbers, PINs, Social Security numbers, children’s school records, answers to security questions, and private communications with therapists and attorneys.

The plaintiffs allege that Aaron’s told Aspen Way to install PC Rental Agent, a program purportedly used to track down stolen computers, but, according to the the class action lawsuit, also collected private and sensitive information about rental computer users.

Aaron’s argued that it should be dismissed from the computer spying lawsuit because it did not directly collect or use information collected from the spyware. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. disagreed with Aaron’s argument, noting that Aaron’s was heavily involved in training and directing Aspen Way staff to install and use PC Rental Agent.

The Aaron’s class action lawsuit did not allege that Aaron’s installed PC Rental Agent on their computers or were using the program to collect their information, noted the judge. However, the judge did not accept the company’s argument that it could not be held liable for “aiding and abetting” Aspen Way’s spying under Georgia law.

Judge Thrash pointed out that Aaron’s was heavily involved with Aspen Way’s use of the spying software. The judge said that in addition to claiming Aaron’s trained Aspen Way’s staff to use PC Rental Agent, Aaron’s promoted the program and allowed Aspen Way to use Aaron’s intranet to access the spyware.

Aspen Way argued that the claims against it in the class action lawsuit should be dismissed because they only used the information to “track down” lost or stolen computers. Judge Thrash disagreed with Aspen Way as well, agreeing with the class action lawsuit that Aspen’s use of the PC Rental Agreement program to collect other types of information possibly represented an “unreasonable intrusion” into customers’ privacy.

Judge Thrash did trim the plaintiffs’ claims brought under the Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act. The judge pointed out that two plaintiffs are from Colorado and Oklahoma respectively and sued Montana-based Aspen Way in Aaron’s home state of Georgia. The judge noted that Georgia state law doesn’t apply beyond the state’s borders and concluded that none of the allegations against either defendant has any relation to Georgia.

The plaintiffs are represented by Andrea S. Hirsch and Edward C. Konieczny of Herman Gerel LLP and Frederick S. Longer of Levin Fishbein Sedran & Berman.

The Aaron’s Rental Computer Spyware Class Action Lawsuit is Peterson, et al. v. Aaron’s Inc., et al., Case No.. 1:14-cv-01919, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.