Sears class action claims retailer ‘eavesdrops’ on customer chats

Sears class action overview: 

• Who: Two Sears consumers are suing the retailer.
• Why: The plaintiffs say the company secretly embedded software in its website that sent user data to Amazon in order to increase its profits. 
• Where: The Sears class action lawsuit was filed in a California federal court. 
• What are my options: Norton LifeLock provides data security options.

Sears secretly embedded Amazon software into its website in order to scrape visitor data and increase its profits, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiffs Noelle and Anthony D’Angelo filed the class action lawsuit against Sears, Roebuck and Co. on May 26 in a California federal court, alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and California’s Unfair Competition Law.

According to the lawsuit, Sears secretly integrated third parties’ software onto its website, sears.com, to wiretap and eavesdrop on the private conversations of users of the chat features on the website in real time.

The D’Angelos say Sears did this in order to harvest data for financial gain.

Under CIPA, Sears needed to obtain visitors’ consent to either the wiretapping or sharing of their private conversations in order to do it legally, and it did not, they say.

“As a result, Defendant and the third parties have violated the CIPA in numerous ways,” they say.

User data was sent to Amazon, lawsuit states

To enable the alleged online eavesdropping, Sears allows at least one independent third party — believed to be Amazon — to secretly intercept transcripts of Sears online chat communications with unsuspecting website visitors, “even when such conversations are private and deeply personal,” the lawsuit states. 

“Thus, whenever a chat message is sent from a member of the Class to Defendant, it is first routed through Amazon’s server.”

The D’Angelos say Sears neither informs visitors of this conduct nor obtains their consent to these alleged intrusions. Meanwhile, Amazon allegedly boasts about the data it is harvesting from these conversations for financial gain, the lawsuit states. 

As a result, the plaintiffs are looking to represent anyone in California who communicated with Sears via the chat feature on the website and whose chats were recorded by Amazon or others in real time without their consent. 

The plaintiffs are seeking certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial. 

Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it discloses the website interactions and communications of its patients with third parties such as Google, Twitter and Bing.

What do you think of the allegations against Sears in this case? Let us know in the comments. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Alexis M. Wood and Kas L. Gallucci of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron; Brandon M. Wise of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise LLP; and Andrew R. Tate. 

The Sears class action lawsuit is Noelle D’Angelo, et al. v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., Case No. 3:23-cv-00977-WQH-KSC, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

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