AOL, Brightcove & ScanScout Online Tracking Class Action Lawsuit

AOL, Brightcove & ScanScout Online Tracking Class Action Lawsuit

By Matt O’Donnell

AOL is the latest online media giant accused of using Flash cookies to secretly track users’ online activity and sell the information to third-party advertisers, says a federal class action lawusit.

The AOL class action lawsuit demands that AOL stop intruding on millions of people’s privacy. Also named in the class action as co-defendants are ScanScout and Brightcove, which are accused of overriding privacy controls on private citizens’ computers to install temporary files called location stored objects (LSOs), or “Flash cookies,” using Adobe flash technology. Adobe is not named as a defendant.

ScanScout, which provides video ad services to AOL and others, uses Brightcove technology to display online video content and track consumers’ viewing patterns. This is done by storing LSOs on users’ computers.

LSOs are normally used to retain audio volume preferences and online video game scores when playing audio content online; according to the class action lawsuit, however, ScanScout and Brightcove use LSOs for a different purpose: they are used as substitutes and back-ups for browser cookies. Once the LSOs are stored on users’ computers, they are used to collect information about their online activities and the information is sold to third-party advertisers.

Many consumers are unaware that their online activities are monitored, and their only protection against tracking is a browser control that blocks or deletes cookies.

“To avoid being tracked online, Plaintiff and Class Members used and relied on their browser controls to block and/or delete browser cookies from tracking companies, including defendants,” the AOL cookie class action lawsuit says. “Unlike cookies, for which commercial browsers provide consumers some measure of control, consumers have no reasonable means to block, detect or delete LSOs and are burdened by other, material differences between cookies and LSOs”

The AOL Flash cookie class action lawsuit is seeking to represent a Class of millions of AOL users who had their private information tracked without their consent by AOL, ScanScout and Brightcove. It is seeking class certification and compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Massachusetts’ Privacy Act and Consumer Protection Act, and more. It is also asking that the defendants be enjoined from tracking consumers.

A copy of the AOL, ScanScout & Brightcove Online Tracking Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Sandra Person Burns v. AOL, Inc.; Brightcove, Inc.; and ScanScout, Inc., in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts.