Santa Clara, CA: Twitter unit MoPub is facing a proposed Internet privacy violations class action lawsuit alleging the mobile ad management platform installs a "supercookie"in Verizon subscribers' Internet browsers, which tracks customers online activity.
Plaintiff Shamma Singh, a California-based Verizon subscriber, states in the complaint that the tracking IDs created by MoPub Inc. for her and other Verizon Wireless users to track their behavior for targeted advertising, are very hard to identify and that computer experts have struggled to detect them. The suit claims that the marketing company offers only a bogus opt-out mechanism that raises a logical catch-22.
"Although MoPub Inc. appears to have an opt out mechanism, Verizon users have no knowledge that MoPub Inc. exists or is tracking them, rendering the opt out idea wholly ineffective," the complaint states. "There is no reason why consumers would know to visit MoPub Inc.' page to attempt to avoid tracking if they have no knowledge of its practices."
Further, the opt-out option doesn't even require MoPub to stop the tracking. Rather, it' simply a request that MoPub can choose to ignore, according to the complaint.
Consequently, the lawsuit states, MoPub has compiled "deeply personal and private information" on users without their knowledge or consent and designed its supercookies to be practically "indestructible," according to the plaintiff. Further, deleting cookies from a browser won't remove MoPub' code, the lawsuit states.
Singh seeks to establish a class of the "thousands or millions"of Californians who used Verizon to access the Internet or use applications on their phones or computers, stating the statute of limitations doesn't apply because MoPub concealed its tracking.
Singh is represented by.Kabateck Brown Kellner LLP. The case is Shamma Singh v. Mopub Inc., case number BC601072, in the California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles.
