Prudential Illegally ‘Wiretaps’ Website Visitors’ Electronic Communications, Class Action Alleges
Hazel et al. v. Prudential Financial, Inc. et al.
Filed: November 23, 2022 ◆§ 3:22-cv-07465-TSH
A class action claims Prudential Financial Inc. uses software to secretly record website visitors’ electronic communications as they submit personal and health information.
California
A proposed class action claims Prudential Financial Inc. uses software sold by ActiveProspect to secretly record website visitors’ electronic communications as they submit personal and health information.
The 26-page lawsuit alleges Prudential has violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act by embedding into the computer code of its website ActiveProspect’s “TrustedForm” software, allowing both parties to intercept visitors’ keystrokes, mouse clicks and other interactions without consent. As the case tells it, the defendants knowingly “wiretap” consumers’ communications as they enter private information about themselves and their health history on Prudential.com to obtain a quote on a life insurance plan.
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According to the filing, TrustedForm is a “lead certification product” that claims to “help businesses authenticate user interactions with a website.” The relationship between ActiveProspect and customers such as Prudential is mutually beneficial, the case relays.
“ActiveProspect benefits financially when lead generators like Prudential purchase its services associated with TrustedForm. In turn, lead generators (like Prudential) who use TrustedForm benefit financially from sharing users’ data with ActiveProspect, because ‘certifying’ leads and harvesting extra data about them increases the value of the leads, which lead generators sell to lead buyers.”
Once a client adds the Javascript onto their website, TrustedForm uses a “VideoReplay” feature to automatically capture how a visitor interacts with its webpage before sharing this data with its clients, the filing contends. The suit explains that the software can also track the time a consumer spends on the website, as well as their IP address, location at the time of the visit, browser type, operating system, and the date and time of each visit.
Notably, the case claims that the software captures how visitors respond to form questions “in real time.” Users in search of a life insurance quote on Prudential.com, for instance, must reveal their name, zip code, date of birth, height, weight, use of prescription medications and tobacco products, information regarding medical and mental conditions, and hospitalization history, according to the suit.
“An ordinary consumer would not know—and nothing on the face of Prudential.com gives any indication—that their answers in the life insurance form are being recorded or shared with a third party,” the complaint says.
Per the suit, Prudential’s privacy notice asks consumers to consent to its disclosures only after they have already answered several personal questions, such that information is captured with or without visitors’ permission.
The lawsuit looks to represent all California residents who visited Prudential.com and provided personal information on Prudential’s form to receive a quote for life insurance.
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