Plaintiffs Never Consented to Data Tracking by Marketing Firm AddShoppers, Says Suit

Marketing firm AddShoppers “illicitly tracks persons across the internet, collects their personal information without consent,” and uses it to send direct solicitations, alleged a Friday class action (docket 2:24-cv-01022) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia against AddShoppers, Nutrisystem and Vivint.

When a person creates an account on the website of a retailer that’s a member of the AddShoppers “Data Co-Op,” AddShoppers “surreptitiously captures the information," tracks the person’s web browsing activity and uses it. The result is ads targeted at individuals from members of the Data Co-Op, said the complaint.

AddShoppers calls its marketing program “SafeOpt” and bills it as a service consumers can opt in to voluntarily to receive “verified offers” from the program’s brand partners, the complaint said. However, “very few individuals” voluntarily opt into the program; instead they are “unwittingly captured in it” when they create an account and make a purchase on a website that’s part of Data Co-Op, it said. AddShoppers “takes a cut of every purchase made via an unauthorized solicitation,” it said.

The complaint referenced “hundreds of individuals” complaining online about receiving targeted emails from retailers via “SafeOpt,” despite never having provided their personal information to SafeOpt. Some public comments describe SafeOpt policies as “creepy,” “sleazy,” “disgusting advertising,” “unethical” and an “invasion of privacy,” the complaint said. AddShoppers’ Better Business Bureau webpage is “flooded with complaints from individuals who received unsolicited email advertisements from SafeOpt,” including one from a consumer calling its practices “shady and misleading.”

Amelia Ingrao, a resident of Fresno, California, visited the Nutrisystem website Jan. 27 and provided her personal information. SafeOpt tracked her visit and later that evening sent Ingrao an email from “Nutrisystem via SafeOpt,” the complaint said. She was “shocked that her personal browsing history was sent to her by a company she had never provided her email address, it said.

Elisabeth Pacana, a Philadelphia resident, visited the Lamin-x website, a website she had never provided any information to, the complaint said. SafeOpt tracked her visit, and she later received an email from Lamin-x via SafeOpt. Prior to receiving the email, Pacana had never heard of SafeOpt and never agreed to provide AddShoppers her information “for the company to 'exploit' for its own financial benefit,” the complaint said.

Both plaintiffs requested their data from AddShoppers and discovered numerous companies tracked them for several years, including the exact dates and time they visited websites that were part of the AddShoppers network. One website was Vivint, which “surreptitiously captured” Pacana's information about her Jan. 24, 2023, visit. Pacana did not provide personal information to Vivint, but the company tracked her visit and sent Pacana's information to AddShoppers. It was then included in the Data Co-Op, the complaint said.

Vivint is “often alleged to use unfair practices” to acquire customers, alleged the complaint, noting the FTC fined the home security company $20 million for "allegedly using credit reports fraudulently to help unqualified customers obtain financing for its products.” Vivint’s sales staff “stole people’s personal information to approve others for loans,” it added.

Plaintiffs' and class members’ PII has independent value, and they have an interest in controlling how it is used, said the complaint. They are harmed “every time their PII is used or shared in a manner to which they did not consent, particularly when it is used to solicit them for marketing and advertising purposes,” it said. AddShoppers and members of its co-op are violating Pennsylvania’s wiretap statute and other state laws designed to protect individuals’ privacy rights, the complaint alleges.

Causes of action are violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act and the California Invasion of Privacy and Computer Access and Data Fraud acts. Plaintiffs seek for themselves and the class injunctive relief; compensatory, nominal, punitive and statutory damages; attorneys’ fees and costs; and pre-judgment interest.