Judge approves comScore class action

Could be the “largest privacy case ever tried,” lawyer predicts

A federal judge has green-lighted a class action lawsuit against comScore, the internet data measuring company that tracks consumers’ web activity and then provides analytics and other data to companies.

The suit, filed in 2011, alleges that comScore entices web surfers with screensavers and offers of prizes, then collects sensitive personal information including social security numbers, usernames and passwords, and credit card data.

James Holderman, a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois, granted class status to the lawsuit. Under Holderman’s order, the plaintiffs will represent “all individuals who have had, at any time since 2005, downloaded and installed comScore’s tracking software onto their computers via one of comScore’s third party bundling partners.”

The judge also certified a smaller subclass consisting of “all class members not presented with a functional hyperlink to an end-user license agreement before installing comScore’s software onto their computers”.

The action was filed on behalf of Mike Harris of Illinois and Jeff Dunstan of California.

comScore takes aim at law firm

In a  on its website, comScore cited a Business Insider article that it says “suggests that [plaintiff firm Edelson McGuire’s] modus operandi appears to be to ‘target large and growing companies with deep pockets, find something nitpicky to sue them over’ then garner a ‘settlement from the accused company who is willing to pay Cheap Shoes for Women just to make the litigation go away.’”

comScore lists several other companies that it says “have been targeted by Edelson,” including “Groupon, Facebook, Zynga, TimeWarner, Yahoo!, Grubhub, RockYou, Match.com, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.”

Could be, but Jay Edelson, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, told NBC via  that he expects the case “will be the largest privacy case ever to be tried.”

The plaintiffs allege violations of several federal statutes, including the Electronic Privacy Communication Act (ECPA), the Stored Communication Act (SCA), and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

(originally published at )