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A pair of California residents say a company compiles hundreds of thousands of digital yearbooks and puts the information on the website Classmates.com without permission in a class action lawsuit alleging violations of consumers’ privacy rights.
Lead plaintiffs Meredith Callahan and Lawrence Abraham say Classmates.com, a website owned and run by PeopleConnect Inc., used information provided in yearbooks to target ads to unwitting customers.
According to the complaint, the company extracts names and photos, as well as other information, from reprinted yearbooks to create a huge digital database. It then provides some of this information online for free and also sells a printed yearbook and access to the information for $3 a month.
Abraham claims his name and likenesses are found on Classmates.com despite the plaintiff never having provided permission or agreed to any terms of service with the company.
According to the complaint, Classmates.com users can access up to 16 yearbooks that contain Abraham’s picture and name, as well as other information about him, such as school clubs and teams in in which he participated, as well as locations of the schools he went to. In fact, a third party could even purchase hard-copy reprints of yearbooks Abraham appears in.
Similarly, Callahan says she never provided permission or was even notified her likeness and name from her yearbooks would be included on Classmates.com. However, Classmates.com contains 36 records of Callahan, according to the class action lawsuit, along with two additional records mistakenly attributed to the plaintiff.
“Classmates has not received consent from, given notice to, or provided compensation to the millions of Californians whose names, photographs, biographical information, and identities appear in its Classmates Yearbook Collection,” the class action lawsuit states, alleging PeopleConnect violates consumers’ privacy rights under California law.
In addition to selling access to the digital yearbook, Classmates.com also profits by selling targeted ads, the plaintiffs say.
The class action lawsuit claims PeopleConnect has likely accessed and used millions of records of California residents without their knowledge or permission. The plaintiffs note the company does not disclose how it obtains its yearbook information, but the website asks users to donate old yearbooks.
“With the exception of the implied consent of the donor (who may or may not personally appear in the donated yearbook), Classmates makes no attempt to contact or gain the consent of the people whose names, photographs, likenesses, biographical information, and identifies appear in a donated yearbook,” the class action lawsuit argues. “Classmates does not require or even suggest the donor should ask the consent of the people who appear in the yearbook to have their names, photographs, and images digitally extracted and aggregated into records sold and used for advertising by Classmates.”
The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of California residents who are not Classmates subscribers or who have not donated yearbooks, but whose names and/or likenesses have been compiled and placed on the Classmates website.
The class action lawsuit is seeking damages and restitution on behalf of the Class, as well as a court order stating Classmates.com has violated consumers’ California privacy rights and requiring the company to stop using this information without consent.
Is your yearbook information on Classmates.com? Are you concerned about your privacy rights? We want to hear what you think. Tell us in the comment section below.
The lead plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by Michael F. Ram and Marie N. Appel of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group and Benjamin R. Osborn of Ben Osborn Law.
The Classmates Privacy Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Meredith Callahan, et al. v. PeopleConnect Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-09203-SK, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
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126 thoughts onYearbook Co. Violated Privacy Rights, Class Action Lawsuit Says
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Please include me…I thought it didn’t seem right that they could get a hold of my yearbook…have no idea how they got it…and they wouldn’t tell me who sold it…I guess some pathetic soul rummaged through the fire I had and stole it… and not only publish the book, but also nothing was redacted, so everything that was written to me, that should not have been shared without my knowledge or permission, for the world to see…and they made $$ off of MY PROPERTY… I had a lot going on back then and assumed no lawyer would think it was a big deal… I did and it still seems like an invasion of property…wrong on several levels…
I submitted information I unsubscribed years ago Now recently I received an email from Classmates.com with a different picture I have not subscribed someone is controlling my previously unsubscribed account this is terrible