Papa John's is being sued for allegedly 'wiretapping' its own website

Date:
Fri, 07 Oct 2022 21:08:06 +0000

Description:
The company took session replay software too far, and broke multiple laws, lawsuit claims

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Popular pizza chain Papa Johns is being sued for allegedly wiretapping its
own website.

The claimant is asking for at least $100 per day of violation, per person,
and given that this is a class-action lawsuit, should the company be declared guilty, the damages could amount to quite a lot.

According to the lawsuit filed earlier this week in a federal district court in southern California, Papa Johns installed whats known as session replay software - software thats capable of recording, then replaying a user session on the website. That way, the company can see exactly where users clicked, hovered their mouse, when they decided to abandon the cart, and pretty much anything else that was part of their session with Papa Johns. Violation of
the US Wiretap Act

While this type of tracking is nothing new, and many companies use it to improve the website and its performance, Papa Johns took it too far, the plaintiffs are claiming, and in the process - violated the US Wiretap Act, as well as the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).

"The purported use of 'session replay' technology is to monitor and discover broken website features; however, the extent and detail collected by users of the technology ... far exceeds the stated purpose," the lawsuit reads. Read more

Papa John's staring down $250 million lawsuit for texting spam

Apple cracks down on apps that record your screen

Check out the best proxies out there

The plaintiff is now asking for the greater of $10,000 or $100 per day for each violation. Furthermore, hes demanding $2,500 in statutory damages for multiple CIPA violations. At the moment, the extent of the potential fine is unknown, but the plaintiff argues millions of people were unlawfully spied
on. That means, if the company is found guilty, the fine could be in the millions, as well.

Papa Johns is currently silent on the matter.

Session replay software is part of the usual arsenal of every marketing and
IT department and is usually used to monitor and improve the user experience. These are the best VPN tools around

Via: The Register



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/papa-johns-is-being-sued-for-allegedly-wiretapp ing-its-own-website/


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)