Pet Supplies Plus class action alleges website ‘wiretaps’ customer communications

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Pet Supplies Plus website class action overview: 

• Who: A Pet Supplies Plus customer sued both the company and Microsoft.
• Why: The plaintiff says the pair collaborated to wiretap her communications on the Pet Supplies Plus website.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in a Pennsylvania federal court.

Pet Supplies Plus commits “insidious privacy intrusions” through the use of secret surveillance software on its website, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Ashley Popa filed the class action lawsuit against PSP Group, LLC (Pet Supplies Plus) and Microsoft Corporation Sept. 22 in a Pennsylvania federal court alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act and privacy laws.

According to the lawsuit, Pet Supplies Plus wiretaps the electronic communications of visitors to its website www.petsuppliesplus.com while Microsoft wiretaps the electronic communications of visitors across all of its clients’ websites, including Pet Supplies Plus’.

The Pet Supplies Plus class action alleges that the company procures third-party vendors, such as Microsoft, to embed snippets of JavaScript computer code on its website. 

That code then deploys on each website visitor’s internet browser and records the visitor’s electronic communications with the website, including mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, URLs of web pages visited and more in real time. 

“After intercepting and capturing the Website Communications, PSP and Session Replay Providers use those Website Communications to recreate website visitors’ entire visit to www.petsuppliesplus.com,” the Pet Supplies Plus class action alleges. 

Pet Supplies Plus class action alleges companies ‘look over shoulders’ of customers

Session Replay Providers create a video replay of the user’s behavior on the website and provide it to Pet Supplies Plus for analysis, the lawsuit alleges. 

“PSP’s procurement of Session Replay Providers, including Microsoft, to secretly deploy Session Replay Codes results in the electronic equivalent of ‘looking over the shoulder’ of each visitor to the PSP website for the entire duration of their website interaction,” the Pet Supplies Plus class action claims.

Popa looks to represent anyone in Pennsylvania whose website interactions on the Pet Supplies Plus website were intercepted by the company or through any of Microsoft’s session replay codes. 

She seeks certification of the class action, an injunction stopping the companies from committing the alleged wiretapping, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial. 

Old Navy was hit with a similar lawsuit in August alleging it secretly conducts keystroke monitoring and records mouse clicks of visitors to its website, in violation of the law.

Hot Topic has also been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it secretly wiretaps the private conversations of everyone who communicates through the chat feature on its website. 

Have you interacted with the Pet Supplies Plus website? Let us know your thoughts on the class action in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Gary F. Lynch, Kelly K. Iverson, Jamisen A. Etzel, Elizabeth Pollock-Avery, Nicholas A. Colella and Patrick D. Donathen of Lynch Carpenter, LLP.

The Pet Supplies Plus class action lawsuit is Ashley Popa v. PSP Group, LLC and Microsoft Corporation, Case No. 2:22-cv-01357-NBF, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. 

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