Class Action Possible in comScore Case

Digital audience specialist comScore has suffered a legal setback in Illinois, where a federal judge has ruled it could be open to a class action suit over claims of privacy violations.

US District Court Judge James Holderman certified two groups of consumers who may be involved in an action - all those who have downloaded comScore's software via a third party since 2005; and all those who were not provided with a link to the company's End User Licence Agreement (EULA) before they opted to download the software.

Jay Edelson, lawyer for the initial plaintiffs - who filed in 2011 - says there may be as many as one million people in the classes concerned. Consumers Jeff Dunstan of California and Mike Harris of Illinois say comScore's terms of service fail to alert users to the 'terrifying' amount of data its OSSProxy software collects, from usernames and passwords to credit card numbers and retail transactions; or to the fact the software may modify their security settings.

The suit also alleges that the software 'fuzzifies' confidential data rather than thoroughly anonymising it; and can slow down Internet access and cause computers to crash.

In the EULA, comScore openly states that once a participant downloads its software, it monitors all the Internet behavior that occurs on the computer on which the application is installed, including both normal web browsing and secure sessions such as filling a shopping basket, completing an application form or checking online accounts.

comScore admits that the software can inadvertently collect personally identifiable information about panelists, but points out that when this happens it purges its database. The firm has said it will 'aggressively defend itself' against the claims and had argued that the case was not appropriate for class action because consent issues need to be analyses case-by-case - but Holderman said many of the questions raised were common to all cases.

Legal experts quoted in the online press have suggested consumers could sue for up to a maximum of $1,000, and that the action could be 'the largest privacy case to ever go to trial in terms of class size and potential damages.'

Web site: www.comscore.com .