Class Action Alleges Brooklinen Illegally Collects, Transmits User Data Through Tracking Tools

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Brooklinen secretly embeds third-party tracking tools on its website to collect, share and profit from website visitors’ private information without consent.

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The 94-page privacy lawsuit asserts that Brooklinen, Inc., a bedding and home goods retailer, deceives website visitors by displaying a “cookie banner” that ostensibly gives users control over how their information is shared with third parties. The suit alleges, however, that the tracking tools embedded on the website begin transmitting users’ personal information before they can interact with the website banner and even after they affirmatively reject all non-necessary cookies.

According to the case, Brooklinen has violated consumers’ fundamental privacy rights under the Federal Wiretap Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act, among other privacy statutes, by collecting and sharing their information without consent.

The filing alleges that the tracking tools embedded on Brooklinen.com intercept, copy and transmit detailed information about how users interact with the website to third parties—including Facebook, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Snapchat and Reddit—as soon as they visit the site. Nevertheless, users are presented with a banner that appears to allow them to manage how their information is used, either by selecting “Accept Cookies,” “Reject All” or “Manage Preferences,” which gives users the option to reject the use of targeting and performance cookies, the lawsuit relays.

According to the case, Brooklinen’s representations that users can control how their data is used are false, as the tracking tools collect and transmit users’ private information regardless of their cookie preferences and even before they can interact with the cookie banner.

The complaint alleges that information transmitted by the tracking tools may include pages or products viewed, inferred interests, preferences, age, location or other characteristics based on user engagement. Moreover, the case claims that the tracked information may also include email addresses, geolocation information and “persistent” identifiers that can be used to recognize users across internet sessions and websites. Brooklinen and the third parties that operate the tracking technologies can use the collected data to create comprehensive profiles of website visitors for targeted advertising purposes and their own monetary gain, the lawsuit alleges.

The case claims that the tracking tools on Brooklinen’s website effectively function as an unlawful wiretap, pen register, and trap and trace device under the California Invasion of Privacy Act and Federal Wiretap Act as they allow third parties to “eavesdrop,” record, extract, analyze and exploit consumers’ sensitive information.

“The unauthorized collection of a person’s browsing activity, website interactions, and device identifiers constitutes an invasion of the most basic expectation of privacy in one’s online life,” the filing emphasizes. 

The Brooklinen class action lawsuit seeks to cover all individuals who visited Brooklinen’s website in the United States during the applicable limitations period, who interacted with the website’s cookie banner and/or cookie settings and rejected the website’s use of tracking tools, and whose electronic communications were intercepted, disclosed, and/or transmitted to third parties through the defendant’s use of the tracking tools.

Learn all about the legal process: What is a class action lawsuit?