‘Illegal Wiretapping’: Class Action Claims Old Navy Secretly Records Website Visitors’ Communications

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Old Navy, LLC faces a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the retailer has secretly recorded and tracked consumers’ online communications through “wiretapping software” on its website.

The eight-page case out of California alleges visitors to oldnavy.gap.com are unaware that the defendant uses third-party keystroke monitoring software to record “every aspect of a visitor’s interaction” with the site, including keystrokes, mouse clicks, data entry and other electronic communications.

Per the case, Old Navy has violated a California privacy law by failing to obtain site visitors’ consent before recording their online communications.

“Defendant’s actions amount to the digital trifecta of looking over its consumers’ shoulders, eavesdropping on consumers’ conversations, reading consumers’ journals,” the complaint states, arguing that Old Navy’s conduct is “both illegal and offensive.”

According to the suit, the defendant’s website uses a “session replay” program that is able to capture and replay each aspect of a website visitor’s interactions with the site, including their mouse movements, clicks, page visits and scrolling. The lawsuit says a team of experts has confirmed through “a complex two-step process” the existence of such software on Old Navy’s website.

Moreover, the retailer also uses a chatbot service provided by third party PolSource that “convincingly impersonates an actual human that encourages consumers to share their personal information,” according to the complaint. The plaintiff, a California resident, says he communicated with someone he believed to be an Old Navy customer service representative on the retailer’s website and was unaware that the chatbot program was recording and storing “the entire conversation.”

The lawsuit further alleges that Old Navy unlawfully shares consumer data with the third parties from whom it licenses its session replay and chatbot technology for “storage and data harvesting purposes.”

According to the suit, Old Navy has never informed consumers or sought consent from them to monitor, record and share their electronic communications.

The case looks to represent anyone in California who, within the past year, visited Old Navy’s website and had their electronic communications intercepted, recorded, monitored or shared by the retailer without prior consent.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s newsletter here.