The complaint filed by Saber Khamooshi, Ryan Wu, and Brian Carolus against Politico LLC on September 26, 2024, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, accuses the digital newspaper company of privacy violations. The plaintiffs allege that Politico LLC has been secretly embedding third-party trackers on its website to collect and share users' personal data without their consent.
According to the lawsuit, Politico LLC installed various tracking technologies on its website, www.Politico.com, which captured users' browser and device data as well as personally identifying information such as IP addresses. This data was allegedly shared with third-party trackers for advertising purposes without users' knowledge or consent. The plaintiffs argue that this practice violates several laws including the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA), the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and the right to privacy under Article 1, § 1 of the California Constitution.
The plaintiffs claim that they regularly visited the Politico website during the proposed class period but were unaware of any tracking activities due to a lack of notification or consent request from Politico. They assert that their reasonable expectation of privacy was violated when their personal information was collected and shared with third parties like TripleLift, Index Exchange (formerly CasaleMedia), and Xandr.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for invasion of privacy and statutory damages under CDAFA. Additionally, it demands injunctive relief to prevent further unauthorized data collection by Politico LLC. The plaintiffs also seek an award for attorneys’ fees and costs associated with the litigation.
Representing the plaintiffs are attorneys from Keller Grover LLP and Law Offices of Scot D. Bernstein. The case is presided over by Judge Sahar Enayati under Case ID CGC-24-618459.