Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
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.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
118 thoughts onMyLife.com Must Face Class Action Alleging It Falsely Implied Man Was a Sex Offender
I would like to be included in this class action.
My life.com is a thief and a snake.. That site makes your very own profile page and doesn’t let you remove it. Their selling our information on the internet and then on the other hand selling us the ability to remove such negative remarks from the site/sites. The website is a complete shame and needs to be taken down. Nothing seems to be private anymore. Especially online identity.
I would like to be included in any class action lawsuit against mylife .com. I received an email from them today May 30 2021 containing derogatory information and when I called their customer service number I was told I had to have a monthly subscription in order to block mylife.com from reporting or creating a profile of my personal and private information. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was refused.
This site needs to be taken down. I didn’t even sign up for them, yet, I have a profile, and they have slandered my name. They provide your address, name, criminal record, phone number, birth date, age, credit, religion, nationality, etc. On their site, they tell you numerous times,”this information given, should not be used for stalking others.” If you have to state that on your site, then that says enough. They make inaccurate assumptions about you, and slander your character. After all of that, they rate you. I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS. I feel like they invaded my privacy, and have lied about who I am as an individual.
I received an email from mylife claiming that that they had negative information about me. when I accessed the report, it only gave general information about age, relatives, addresses etc. If I wanted to see the ” negative” information, I would have to pay a fee to access it.
I sent them the following response, but haven’t has a reply yet…
I find it disturbing and deceitful that you would send me an email claiming that you found negative information about me just to entice me to become a customer. I think I am going to report you to the FTC and the BBB
Mine was highly inaccurate, and had my information conflated with information regarding another person with a similar name in a neighboring town. My age was wrong by 12 years, my occupation and employment was wrong, as well as other details.
Mine implies I have a criminal history, which I do not. Add me
First I have previously been a trained skip tracer for a collection agency with a good working knowledge of LexisNexis. For that and other reasons I’ve resisted the temptation to create ANY social media accounts. For the last 6 months I have been dealing with this companies extortion attempts. Creating a profile of non-existent inaccurate info with a poor reputation score then trying to charge me to correct the info.
Every 3 weeks I get an email about my profile being searched and reputation score being updated. From day 1, I have unsubscribed (via email link), called customer support, spoken to supervisors. I’ve been provided a conformation# and advised my account deleted, my email blacklisted and I should get no more solicitations. 3 weeks later, it happens all over again. How do you email a non existent account that has been blacklisted. Then again 3 weeks later. Then again. Actually got 1 of their phone reps to acknowledge the unsubscribe link doesnt work. When I reminded them they just said that on a recorded call(mylife advises calls are recorded/monitored for quality assurance when you call in) the rep gets huffy puffy starts reading a form letter abt not being allowed to speak on recorded calls and hangs up. Hello? You work in a call center that advises all inbound calls are recorded. You have implied consent to being recorded simply by working there and taking inbound calls. I have sent cease and desist letters, filed complaints with the FTC and state AG’s office. Yet they keep emailing me reputation updates. Email replies are all form letters, call center reps advise your info is gone when its not. Unsubscribe doesnt work. I’m glad I never gave them money, but ongoing contact is really pissing me off.
As a self employed musician/private instructor my reputation is everything. MYLIFE.com seems to be doing everything possible to destroy it with inaccurate information. I’ve exhausted pretty much every other option except taking a few days to drive out to the corporate headquarters and going postal. (starting to seriously consider this if I get even 1 more email from these bastards) Apparently they missed the part of my reputation about confronting bullies and knocking them on their ass.
Please add me to your class action case. I have all dates, times, emails, phone center rep names and supervisor employee numbers documented for evidence. This company must be taken down.
Article says “Brion Finlay is represented by David Madgett of Hutton Madgett PLLC”
Google this lawyer or firm and the first result is… his mylife.com file!
Please include me also. My file shoes criminal charges that are not mine.
Add me please to any class action lawsuits re mylife.com
I have emailed and called them demanding they remove any and all my personal info about me. I also informed them they have information that is completely inaccurate, incorrect and misleading. They ignore my emails.