Christina Spicer  |  March 3, 2021

Category: Legal News

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Classmates.com misappropriates pictures, says class action

An Ohio woman says that Classmates.com misappropriated her yearbook picture for online advertising without asking, and she’s not the only one.

Yesterday, lead plaintiff, Barbara Knapke, filed a class action lawsuit in Washington federal court against Seattle-based PeopleConnect Inc., the owner of Classmates.com. She’s hoping to represent other residents of Ohio who say that their yearbook photos were also misappropriated by PeopleConnect for advertising on Classmates.com.

“Classmates’ business model relies on extracting personal information from school yearbooks, including names, photographs, schools attended, and other biographical information,” explains Knapke in her class action lawsuit. “Classmates aggregates the extracted information into digital records that identify specific individuals by name, photograph, and other personal information, and stores those digital records in a massive online database.”

Classmates.com allegedly allows all of its users to access certain images for free. Premium service users get access to even more images. Knapke claims that, despite having never signed up for the service or accessing it in any way, her yearbook photo was used on Classmates.com, along with her full name, as a free preview on the website. She says she never gave the website permission to use her photo for ads and neither did the other people featured on the site.

“It would be simple for Classmates to maintain their business model while still complying with state law,” asserts Knapke in her class action lawsuit. “For example, Classmates could sell Plaintiff’s information on an individual basis without using her identity to advertise its subscription service.”

The class action lawsuit alleges that PeopleConnect is in violation of state laws protecting the use of an individual’s image for commercial purposes. The plaintiff seeks to represent other Ohio residents whose pictures have been misappropriated on Classmates.com for marketing purposes.

This is not the first class action lawsuit to take aim at the company over its compilation and use of yearbook images. A few months ago, a pair of California residents accused PeopleConnect of compiling hundreds of thousands of digital yearbooks and putting the information on the Classmates.com without permission in a class action lawsuit alleging violations of consumers’ privacy rights.

Were your pictures or images misappropriated by Classmates.com? Do you use the website? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below!

The lead plaintiff, Barbara Knapke, and proposed Class Members are represented by Wright A. Noel of Carson Noel PLLC and Philip L. Fraietta of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Classmates.com Misappropriated Pictures Class Action Lawsuit is Knapke v. PeopleConnect, Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-00262, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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169 thoughts onClassmates.com Uses Yearbook Pictures For Ads Without Permission, Lawsuit Says

  1. C Lyons says:

    I’ve used Classmates and Yearbook, and my information was used on the Dark Web. Please add me to the Lawsuit.

  2. simon perry says:

    please add me to this thank you

  3. Misty Dennison says:

    Please add me to this lawsuit. I did opt out Facebook connection. I believe I have seen 2 of my pictures that they posted. I even questioned them about it.

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