Lawsuit Investigation: Is Kroger.com Sharing Users’ Data with Facebook?
Last Updated on November 13, 2023
Investigation Complete
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org have finished their investigation into this matter.
Check back for any potential updates and take a look at our open investigations here. The information on this page is for reference only.
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- California, Washington, Florida and Pennsylvania residents who have a Kroger.com account and visited the website within the past two years.
- What’s Going On?
- Attorneys working with ClassAction.org believe the grocery store chain may have used tracking tools to secretly share Kroger.com users’ browsing and shopping habits with Facebook and other third parties. They’re now looking into whether a class action lawsuit can be filed over potential violations of state and federal privacy laws.
- How Could a Lawsuit Help?
- A class action lawsuit could help compensate Kroger.com users for any privacy violations and potentially force the grocery store chain to change its data sharing practices.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether a class action lawsuit can be filed against Kroger for potential violations of federal and state privacy laws.
Specifically, they believe that Kroger.com may be using online tracking tools to record—and then share with Facebook—website visitors’ activities, including which products they search for, view and purchase. It’s possible that this data could contain customers’ protected health information (for instance, if they purchased medicine or pharmacy-related products) and the attorneys are looking into whether users are owed compensation for privacy violations.
How Could Kroger.com Be Violating Users’ Privacy?
Many website operators gather data about the people who visit their websites by using an invisible tracking tool called the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) pixel.
The pixel, which can be embedded on any webpage, can be programmed to record every action a visitor takes, such as the buttons they click, the searches they perform and the content they view. In general, the data collected by a website through the Meta pixel can be used by both the website operator and the social media giant to better target advertisements to their users.
In this case, attorneys are specifically looking into whether Kroger.com is tracking which products users search for, view and purchase. If an individual uses the website to fill a prescription or purchase medicine or other pharmacy-related products, this data could potentially contain their protected medical information.
Attorneys suspect that Kroger may have violated privacy laws by failing to obtain website visitors’ consent before tracking and disclosing their personal information.
How Could a Lawsuit Help?
A successful class action lawsuit against Kroger could help compensate website users whose privacy was violated. It could also force the grocery store chain to improve its data security practices.
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