Liberty Mutual Tracked Online Users Without Consent, Class Action Claims

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Liberty Mutual faces a proposed class action that claims the online communications of website visitors were tracked, recorded, and stored by the insurance company via spyware without consent.

The 22-page case says certain web-tracking software allowed the insurance company access to the interactions of visitors to LibertyMutual.com, allowing it to monitor users’ movements in real-time as well as log the data for future playback. The suit describes the tracking software as more robust than standard website cookies, tags or analytics tools in that it can intercept and redirect a user’s communications.

According to the suit, Liberty Mutual “knowingly and intentionally” recorded these electronic interactions without consent. With the captured data, the company allegedly created what the filing calls “essentially a video of a Class member’s entire visit to Defendant’s website.”

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Liberty Mutual’s use of “session replay” spyware violates Pennsylvania’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act (WESCA) in that, by utilizing such software, the insurance giant could view and record “the webpages visited by Plaintiff and the Class members, as well as everything [the consumers] did on those pages, e.g., what they searched for, what they looked at, the information they inputted, and what they clicked on.”

Visitors to Liberty Mutual’s website have an expectation of privacy, the suit contends.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff, a Pennsylvania resident, had no reason to think the company would be monitoring, recording, and storing her interactions with the site, in large part because she was not provided with any sort of opportunity to consent to such web-tracking. 

Per the lawsuit, the purported purpose of spyware technology like Clicktale and Datadog, the programs allegedly used by the defendant, is to keep tabs on how the website itself functions.  However, as the case argues, the amount of data collected in secret from visitors to the website suggests that the objective was in fact to gather information on its users for the material benefit of the company.

Beyond the alleged invasion of privacy and legal violation of WESCA, the recording and storage of online communications by Liberty Mutual puts users’ sensitive information at risk of exposure to third parties, the suit claims.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone residing in Pennsylvania who visited LibertyMutual.com and whose online interactions were recorded without consent.

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