Home Depot Under Fire for Alleged Tracking of Website Users’ Online Activity

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Home Depot faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges the company “intentionally intercepted” users’ electronic communications by embedding “session replay” software into its website.

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The 26-page lawsuit claims that web-tracking codes provided by Quantum Metric and other third-party vendors and embedded into HomeDepot.com allowed the defendant to monitor website visitors’ interactions with the site in real time and record users’ movements for later playback.

Per the suit, the “spyware” technology can be used to track and record a visitor’s every action on the website, including search entries, cursor movements, keystrokes, content viewed, and any information entered into the site, potentially including sensitive personal information.

According to the case, Home Depot knowingly employed Quantum Metric software to capture user activity on its website from the moment they entered the page. Unlike standard website analytics tools or cookies, session replay technology is meant to intercept and record entire browsing sessions “as if someone is looking over [the consumer’s] shoulder,” the complaint contends.

What’s more, the technology not only allows the defendant to wiretap consumers’ electronic communications, but it also enables the company to use the collected data to piece together a detailed profile of each visitor to the site, the filing says.

The sheer amount of data “surreptitiously” captured by Home Depot suggests that its goal in using the spyware is to gain an insight into consumers’ online habits and preferences for commercial profit, the lawsuit claims.

Like other users of HomeDepot.com, the San Diego-based plaintiff reasonably expected that his visit to the website would remain private, in large part because no pop-up or notice was presented asking for his consent to be monitored, the suit relays.

Per the case, Home Depot’s alleged wiretapping is not only a violation of federal and state law but a knowing invasion of consumer privacy.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose communications were intercepted by a person “procured” by Home Depot. The suit also looks to cover California residents whose confidential communications or cellular communications were tapped by Home Depot or its agents.

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