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A website that offers to show you someone’s “reputation” and criminal history for a fee must face class action claims, after it allegedly suggested a Minnesota man was a sex offender when he only has traffic tickets.
In a Tuesday ruling, Minnesota federal Judge Susan Nelson rejected MyLife.com’s motion to dismiss Plaintiff Brion Finlay’s proposed class action against the public information company.
Nelson said MyLife’s profiles and “Reputation Scores” amount to a consumer report, while MyLife operates as a consumer reporting agency, so it can also be sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as well as for defamation.
Finlay brought the class action in May, claiming his MyLife profile incorrectly implied he had both a criminal and sex offender background, and alleging a similar situation has likely happened to many others.
The class action lawsuit accuses MyLife of editorializing and putting its own spin on information pulled from public records. In his case, MyLife incorrectly editorialized on its website to make a traffic ticket appear as a “criminal or arrest record.”
According to the summary of facts, Finlay is out of work and is searching for a job. He said it’s common for a prospective employer to Google a person’s name when they apply for a job. When you Google Finlay’s name, a MyLife profile for him comes up in the results.
Finlay did not create this profile with MyLife, instead the company creates “reputation” profiles for people based on public records databases, then makes up its own “reputation ratings” for people based on these records. It had rated Finlay a 2.32, a “poor score” by its own design.
On the MyLife-created page for Finlay, a user sees the sentence, “Brion Finlay (C), 42 – Minneapolis, MN Has Court or Arrest Records,” the summary of facts states. The website offers for users to view Finlay’s “Court, Arrest or Criminal Records” on his MyLife profile, stating that Finlay’s profile may contain “graphic content and sensitive details” and suggests that Finlay is a sex offender — which he is not.
Finlay also alleges MyLife includes this information in its profiles to cause reputational harm and incentivize consumers to pay it to “repair” their profiles, offering people the option to remove information on their MyLife profile for a fee. He said MyLife markets and sells its “information” on people to third-parties for employment and other purposes.
Judge Nelson ruled Tuesday it was plausible Finlay has been injured by the profile.
“The allegations in the Complaint — particularly Finlay’s status as a job-seeker and the widespread availability on the Internet of the allegedly false consumer information about him — give rise to a reasonable inference that a third-party viewed that information on his MyLife profile,” she wrote.
The judge also shot down MyLife’s argument that all of the information contained within Finlay’s profile is publicly available elsewhere, so it is not liable.
“The Court disagrees,” she ruled. “As the complaint alleges, MyLife itself devised and calculates the “Reputation Score” that it includes on consumers’ profiles. That, alone, dismantles MyLife’s argument that all of the information in its profiles is available elsewhere in the public domain… Consequently, the harms alleged in the Complaint are fairly traceable to MyLife’s conduct.”
The lawsuit claims that MyLife also runs a “class cyber extortion scheme” by offering consumers the opportunity to pay a monthly fee to remove false or negative information. It seeks to represent anyone whose MyLife consumer reports have been disclosed to persons without a permissible purpose under law.
This is not the first MyLife report scam class action lawsuit filed against MyLife. In September 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company by an individual who claims that MyLife sends mass solicitation emails saying that “someone” is searching for them online and then charges a fee to look at the reports.
Do you feel comfortable with MyLife creating an online profile for you? Let us know in the comments!
Brion Finlay is represented by David Madgett of Hutton Madgett PLLC and Jason Juran and Robert R. Hopper of Robert R. Hopper LLC.
The MyLife Consumer Report Defamation Class Action Lawsuit is Finlay v. MyLife.com Inc., Case No. 0:20-cv-01105, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
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118 thoughts onMyLife.com Must Face Class Action Alleging It Falsely Implied Man Was a Sex Offender
An ex- boyfriend who was a serial cheater, had one of his new girlfriends who worked for mylife list terrible claims on mylife in my maiden name and noone knew my maiden name it changed 35 years ago when I was briefly married. Before the internet.
They email and solicit constantly. I have had enough if their scare tactics.
They have me with a breaking and entering which is completely false. Also has a list of 24 disreputable associations which are all people I don’t know who live in the very large apartment complex I moved out of 2 years ago. It’s a completely bogus website.
This website is full of crap. It has an old picture of me with one of my exes, I purchased a subscription as I want this picture removed but it won’t let me. I have contacted them over and over to help me get rid of it and they tell me I have to pay. This website has old information and untrue information!!
You people are so stupid.
They cant add you.
TCA has nothing to do with these lawsuits.
I’m listed there under previous married name with a RED highlight for court documents making it sound like lawsuit, etc when it was a divorce. Nobodies business if I divorced. So add me !
I have received 85 emails from MyLife since Dec. 2020 on 2 of my email accounts. They keep telling me there are negative items on my profile and want me to pay/subscribe to remove them or even see what they are. I’ve never had more than a parking ticket. They also link me to others with supposed criminal backgrounds who have similar names, but I don’t know them at all. They also put negative info about my husband saying he “DOES” have lawsuits, liens, evictions, or bankruptcy. He filed bankruptcy during the crash in 2008. It’s been over 10 years and doesn’t even show on his credit score (which is Excellent now). But MyLife likes to pull up things like that to continue to hurt people. Horrible website that gives people fake low “scores” and scares you into paying them to remove incorrect or outdated information. Please add me to this class action.
I would like to join the class action against mylife.com because they did the same thing to me, negative information that has hurt me in finding a job, running my own business I had. I called them on more than one occasion demanding they remove the false information only to check and see it still up for some time. It may be down now I am not sure but the damage is done.
PLEASE ADD ME.
This is a horrible website. Where do they get the authority to post strangers opinions that affect a persons reputation? Add me to sue this website, please.