RadioShack Internet Tracking Class Action Lawsuit

RadioShack Internet Tracking Class Action Lawsuit

By Kimberly Mirando

RadioShack Corp. secretly tracks the Internet browsing activities of website visitors and shares this private information with third parties, according to a class action lawsuit filed in Missouri.

Plaintiff Stephanie Hanson alleges in the class action lawsuit that she visited www.radioshack.com multiple times over the past five years and was unaware that the company and its website operator GSI Commerce Solutions Inc. had hacked into her computer’s Adobe Flash Player – which allows websites to play sound effects and video – and planted tracking devices known as Location Shared Objects (LSOs) on her computer.

LSOs are typically used to store information like video and sound preferences, but RadioShack and GSI used the files to track visitors’ Internet activity and harvest personal information about them such as their gender, age and ZIP code, the class action lawsuit says. The two companies then shared these profiles with advertisers and other third parties without consumers’ knowledge or permission.

A similar class action lawsuit was filed in February against Home Depot. Plaintiff Amanda Bahr also accuses the home improvement retailer of hacking into her Flash Player to permanently install tracking files on her computer.

Both Bahr and Hanson allege the hacks permanently altered and impaired the functioning of their computers, and that removing the Defendants’ tracking files would be costly and time-consuming for consumers.

Hanson is seeking to represent a proposed class of all Missouri residents who, within the past five years, had their computers illegally tampered with by RadioShack and GSI. She is seeking damages for alleged invasion of privacy by unreasonable intrusion, computer tampering, trespassing and more.

RadioShack and GSI petitioned the court last week to move the potential class action lawsuit from Missouri state court where it was originally filed to federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri. The two companies sought removal because they said damages in the case could exceed $68 million – not the $5 million Hanson had stated.

The RadioShack Internet Tracking Class Action Lawsuit case is Hanson v. RadioShack Corp. et al., Case No. 13-cv-00536, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Hanson is represented by David L. Steelman, Stephen F. Grant and Patrick J. Horsefield of Steelman Gaunt & Horsefield.

Updated March 27th, 2013

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