Hipster App Stolen Data Class Action Lawsuit

Hipster App Stolen Data Class Action Lawsuit

By Sarah Pierce

Photo-sharing app Hipster illegally obtained iPhone users’ personal information and contact lists without their permission, according to a class action lawsuit filed last week.

Plaintiffs allege in the Hipster class action lawsuit that the free iPhone app sought out and retrieved users’ personal contacts and other highly sensitive information, including passwords and geo-location, and then transferred the data over unencrypted, publicly accessible data channels to Hipster’s third-party servers.

“These actions involved the deliberate and intentional circumvention of technical measures within the mobile computing device in order to bypass the technical and code based barriers, including the plaintiffs’ and class members’ privacy settings which were intended to limit access by anyone other than the owner of the device,” the Hipster class action lawsuit states.

Once Hipster transferred the users’ contact address data to its remote computing service, Hipster then proceeded to access and use such data without authorization or consent, the class action lawsuit continues.

The alleged illegal activity was uncovered by an “independent researcher” who created multiple accounts and tracked data that was removed from his phone, according to the class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are alleging violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act, the California Computer Crime Law, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, as well as other claims.

The Hipster class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of all U.S. residents that downloaded the app to their mobile phones from January 1, 2011 to the present. It is seeking damages, attorneys’ fees and more.

The Hipster App Class Action Lawsuit case is Francisco Espitia v. Hipster Inc., Case No. 13-cv-00432 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs are represented by David C. Parisi and Suzanne L. Havens Beckman of Parisi & Havens LLP, Joseph H. Malley of Law Office of Joseph H. Malley and Alan Himmelfarb of The Law Offices of Alan Himmelfarb.

Updated February 4th, 2013

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