IBM accused of wiretapping Weather.com users
A Maryland woman claims that Weather.com”™s use of personal information from its website visitors amounts to wiretapping.
Lisa Addi, of Northeast, Maryland, accused International Business Machines Inc., the owner of Weather.com, of violating Maryland”™s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, in a class action complaint filed June 21 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
IBM “sought to profit and in fact did profit off procuring the interception of ”¦ electronic communications,” the complaint states, “while intentionally or recklessly disregarding its known legal duty.”
Armonk-based IBM did not respond to an email asking for a response to the accusations.
Addi says it is Weather.com”™s use of an Oracle cloud data management system that enables the company to vacuum up immense amounts of personal data, track individuals as they use various computer devices, create precise customer profiles and sell the data to marketers.
She claims that she had been unaware of how the website gathered her personal information and that she gave no meaningful consent to use of her data.
The complaint does not mention that Weather.com”™s main webpage displays links to privacy settings, advertising settings and data rights that give users the ability to opt out of targeted advertising and sale of personal data.
The complaint states that Oracle offers a marketing tool called Blue Kai Pixel that enables clients to collect and organize personal data from online, mobile and offline sources.
A website can insert a tag, unbeknownst to webpage visitors, that lets the site collect a user”™s location, email address, keystrokes and mouse clicks, search terms and demographic details.
The data can be synchronized with individual profiles and used to identify other devices and marketing channels that people use.
Precise location data can identify up to 95% of the individual website users, according to the complaint, and be used to track consumers to specific locations such as places of worship, domestic abuse shelters, medical facilities, abortion clinics and other sensitive locations.
That kind of movement tracking, the complaint states, is the Holy Grail of marketing, because it connects an individual”™s online interests and activities to “real-world actions.”
The system can also import information such as loyalty program profiles, email lists, social media, and sales transactions.
Oracle uses the data to build profiles of individuals, according to the complaint, “and their every interaction ”“ no matter how, when, where, or with whom they engage.”
Oracle has “actionable audience data” on 300 million users, the complaint states, including age, gender, employment, household income and net worth.
It allegedly matches similar profiles for marketers who can then target an audience anywhere on the internet.
Individuals”™ loss of privacy, the complaint argues, results in advertising profits for the websites that use the Oracle system.
Although Oracles”™ technology is at the core of the complaint, the Texas company is not named as a defendant.
IBM is accused of violating the Maryland wiretapping law for allegedly intercepting the identities and communications of its Weather.com users.
The lawsuit was also filed as a class action on behalf of all Maryland residents who use Weather.com
The Maryland law allows for damages of $100 a day per violation, up to $1,000, for each person who”™s privacy has been invaded.
Addi is asking the court to certify the case as a class action, declare that IBM has violated the wiretapping law, and award unspecified damages and restitution.
She is represented by Bursor & Fisher P.A. attorneys in Manhattan and Miami.