California Consumer Sues BJ’s, Kroger, AIG, Aflac Over Alleged Website Monitoring

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A California consumer has filed proposed class action lawsuits against BJ’s Wholesale Club, Kroger, AIG and Aflac over allegations that the companies have illegally and secretly tracked consumers who visit their respective websites. 

The similarly worded lawsuits contend that the wholesaler, grocer and insurance companies have “secretly deployed” certain “keystroke monitoring” software on their websites in order to intercept, monitor and record the communications of visitors. The cases also say that the communications are “routinely” shared by the defendants with the third parties who created the chatbot and replay software deployed on the websites. 

None of the companies has sought or received express or implied consent from consumers to engage in this form of “wiretapping,” which covers “every aspect of a visitor’s interaction” with one of the companies’ websites, the suits allege.

“Plaintiff and Class Members did not consent to any of Defendant’s actions in implementing wiretaps on its Website, nor did Plaintiff or Class Members consent to Defendant’s intentional access, interception, recording, monitoring, reading, learning and collection of Plaintiff and Class Members’ electronic communications with the Website.” 

As the lawsuits tell it, the defendants’ “wiretapping” amounts to “the digital equivalent of both looking over a consumer’s shoulder and eavesdropping on a consumer’s conversation.” While the defendants’ respective chatbots “convincingly impersonate[]” an actual human and encourage them to share personal information, they simultaneously record and store their entire conversations using “secretly embedded wiretapping technology,” the suits relay. 

The lawsuits come amid a wave of proposed class action litigation aimed at companies who allegedly use monitoring software to track consumers’ interactions with their websites, or allegedly share certain user information with Facebook, without consent. 

The cases look to cover all persons in California who, within the last year, visited BJs.com, Kroger.com, AIGDirect.com, or Aflac.com and had their electronic communications intercepted, recorded, and/or monitored by any of the defendants without prior consent.

The complaint for each case can be found below. 

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