BusinessInsider.com Secretly Collects Visitor Info via Tracking Software, Class Action Says

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A proposed class action claims BusinessInsider.com unlawfully uses web-tracking technology to collect visitors’ personal data without consent.

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The 17-page lawsuit alleges that Insider, Inc. has for years incorporated “pen register” software on its business news website that secretly captures visitors’ IP addresses, which can be used to determine the geographic location of a user’s device.

Per the suit, when a consumer visits BusinessInsider.com, a tracking tool provided by third-party software company Audiencerate is automatically installed on the user’s browser. The tracker transmits the consumer’s IP address back to the third party “each and every time” the individual interacts with the website, the case relays. The complaint shares that the data is then used by Audiencerate to provide targeted marketing and website analytics to the defendant.

“In other words, companies like [Insider, Inc.] are collecting users’ data and sending it to Audiencerate for a profit, whether it is by optimizing marketing campaigns or by purely selling the data,” the filing charges.

As the lawsuit tells it, because the tracking tool records visitors’ “dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information,” the software is considered a “pen register” under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a state law which prohibits the installation and use of such technology without obtaining prior consent and a court order.

Needless to say, the defendant acquired neither consumers’ permission nor a court order before deploying the tracker on BusinessInsider.com, in violation of users’ protected privacy rights, the case contends.

The lawsuit looks to represent any California residents who accessed BusinessInsider.com within the state and had their IP addresses collected by the tracking tool incorporated thereon.

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