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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
This company has too much access to peoples personal files. A website should not be able to have the ability to recklessly throw out misleading info. I hit me with a bankruptcy I had 9.5 years ago. First of all that info is for me and the courtroom that I filed in. My neighbors shouldn’t be able to see i had a hard time in life that long ago. If this guy was standing in front of me I would backhand him. How dare he judge me for the struggle I had to come back from
I have been trying to get my name off my life for years the information is incorrect and misleading. They want to charge a fee to remove this information.
Even tho I have nothing to speak of on my background report I go in on my friends and myself and CHANGE the profile to what I want…. Hum? Now I’ve gone to YALE ,,,lol
Hey, I feel if their going to post misinformation I might as well make it GOOD and in MY FAVOR.
They will not remove the information Or would delete it for a month. But it returns. Because then they know they have a real fish on their hands that will give them money forever if they squeeze hard enough. Then the real harassment starts. Dont give that POS the time of day.
I stumbled onto mylife while looking for info on my grandchildren. I do not do social media so I thought it was like facebook. Well to my surprise there was a file on me! Almost everything on there was a lie, said I live in NY but work in Minnesota…..talk about a long commute. Said I lived In Maryland, never been near the state. Needless to say I am pissed that someone can write lies about people and get away with it. I’m 72 and whose to say this couldn’t affect my SS or medicare which is almost nothing anyway. Someone needs to do something about this and close it down. Add me to the law suit!
Never subscribed but according to My Life, I’m ten years younger, live in Hawaii, and there are red alerts on my profile page pointing at court and possibly a criminal record. It also has me living at my rightful address where most of my neighbors have bankruptcies and/or possible criminal records as well. My father who died in 1994, is still alive and well and someone has written a review on him. People who have lived at my address as roommates keep popping up as relatives somehow. The only accurate info is my age and one of my addresses. The address part is scary. Old and vulnerable here is hoping the government shuts this guy down. The site has gone too far beyond reuniting ex-inamortas and classmates. My congressman is going to hear about this.
it says I have been incarnated………………… WHICH IS NOT TRUE. i have never been arrested or been in trouble with the law. I WILL JOIN THE LAWSUIT. is this going to effect my job status? THIS SITE NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN. damages need to paid to me.
Paid Mylife $50.00 to remove personal information online 3 months ago. They keep saying it takes 3-5 weeks. I keep telling them it’s been 3 month. Feeling like I got scammed. Shouldn’t have to pay for something I never gave permission for.
You did get scammed, why on earth would you pay them $50 to remove it. They listed me as having a criminal record and I don’t have so much as a speeding ticket or parking violation ever in my life and when I contacted them about it, they tried to use that same extortion method to remove these “criminal records” for a fee of $50. $50 to remove criminal records that never existed and were fabricated by MyLife to begin with.
Count me in as another person who is being told that my reputation is being ruined by certain, specific websites where people search for information about others. Statements are being made that are not true, and people are being named as my relatives who are definitely not. All of this in a scam to try to get me to pay a fee and become a member so that they can clean up a mess that I suspect they made just so that they can make money from peoples’ fears.
absolutely bad site. Got me mixed up with someone else. Refused to take the erroneous stuff off. Totally unprofessional. They took down info for two years or so, but now its up. Need to be shut down before they destroy reputations of countless other people.
Email them here: removalrequests@mylife.com
Say exactly this in your email: Please remove the following profiles from your database within the next 7 days. These profiles are entirely inaccurate and criminal. We will hire an attorney and file a slander lawsuit after 7 days. Be advised.
List your first & last name as well as the URL link to your profile.
I listed every single mylife profile of all my family members, 9 total. They removed all 9 in November 2019.
I keep getting emails stating that I have a bankruptcy and that I have a criminal record and other stuff! The email about the bankruptcy I believe is a threat to me that I better become a paying member because other people are being told stuff that is no one else’s business!!! I believe the emails are a blackmail, threat, and causing others to react differently because of what they were sent through this app!!!
I would join the lawsuit. I have 30 criminal charges that are all lies
I would join a class-action lawsuit. The MyLife website/app stated I have a criminal record, which I do not. I called yesterday and they promised to take my profile off, free of charge, but they keep trying to sell me membership by saying,”
did you know that there are at least 35 other websites with personal information about you? We can monitor those for you and remove them.” This is a complete scam!
Trust me they won’t remove it. I did the same thing and got a “Confirmation #” for removal, it’s still there. They just say it to get you to pay the $50. The Feds are sueing them and I can’t understand why it’s taking so long and how they are still in operation.
Email them here: removalrequests@mylife.com
Say exactly this in your email: Please remove the following profiles from your database within the next 7 days. These profiles are entirely inaccurate and criminal. We will hire an attorney and file a slander lawsuit after 7 days. Be advised.
List your first & last name as well as the URL link to your profile.
I listed every single mylife profile of all my family members, 9 total. They removed all 9 in November 2019.
NICE! You’re awesome! Thank you for that! ?
Yet,another example of our government at work.Who knows,maybe they donated to someone,s campaign fund?