comScore Privacy Case to Continue

Online measurement firm comScore has failed in a bid to dismiss a privacy case against it, or to have it moved to a court on its home turf of Virginia. A federal judge said the case should go ahead and should remain in an Illinois court local to one of the plaintiffs.

The suit, filed two months ago, claims comScore collected personal and confidential data - such as credit card numbers, passwords and Social Security numbers - from consumers' computers without their knowledge, 'luring' them with free screensavers, games and other programs.

Mike Harris and Jeff Dunstan allege violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. comScore points out that everything it does is pointed out in its Terms and Conditions, that downloaders must click a box acknowledging they have read and agreed to the terms, and that the license agreement states that jurisdiction rests in Virginia. The plaintiffs say the terms were insufficiently flagged up for 'the average, non-expert consumer' and U.S. District Judge James Holderman said that 'at this stage ... the court must take the plaintiffs' word for it.' Legal commentators have expressed surprise at the judge's decision - Holderman said precedents existed but generally 'check box' acknowledgements of T&Cs have been considered adequate and are the lynchpin of a large proportion of the web's commercial and legal relationships.

Regarding the collecting of sensitive information, comScore concedes that its monitoring includes secure sessions such as filling a shopping basket, completing an application form or checking online accounts, but says it makes efforts to automatically filter out confidential personally identifiable information, and purges its database when such information slips through.

In August, company spokesman Andrew Lipsman said the suit was without merit and full of factual inaccuracies, and that comScore would 'aggressively defend itself' against the claims.

Web site: www.comscore.com .