Farmers Insurance faces a proposed class-action lawsuit in California over alleged third-party tracking cookies placed on website users’ browsers after they rejected tracking technologies, according to BestWire.
The case, Stacy Penning v. Farmers Insurance, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint says the aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5 mn, excluding interest and costs.
The lawsuit alleges Farmers caused third parties to place or transmit cookies that tracked users’ browsing activity on the insurer’s website. It also claims the company intercepted private communications through those tracking tools after users opted out.
According to Beinsure, the complaint states Farmers continued sending cookies to users’ browsers, storing them on devices and transmitting data to third parties despite explicit rejection through the website’s cookie consent banner.
The filing says the cookies allowed third parties to collect real-time information about website visitors.
The alleged data included browsing history, visit history, website interactions, user input data, device information, referral URLs, session details, user identifiers and geolocation data.
The complaint also says the tracking covered demographic information, interests, preferences and shopping behaviour. Plaintiffs argue this was the type of data sharing users tried to avoid when they clicked the reject button.
The lawsuit alleges Farmers ignored users’ stated privacy choices and violated state statutes and tort duties owed to website visitors.
The plaintiffs seek class-action treatment for users who rejected tracking technologies but allegedly still had third-party cookies placed or transmitted through their browsers.
