Charter Sued For Collecting, Selling User Data Without Consent Charter is facing yet another class action lawsuit, this time for allegedly selling consumer data without consent. A customer has filed suit (pdf) in the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against Charter, claiming the company violated Missouri's Merchandising Practices Act by collecting and selling personal information (names, addresses) without consumer permission between July 2011 and 2013.

"The plaintiffs allege that the defendant failed to obtain written consent prior to the disclosure and sale of personally identifiable information, failed to provide the opt-out provision in which the company prohibits or limits the sale of disclosure of the customers' personally identifiable information and failed to provide notice in the form of a separate written statement regarding the company's privacy policies," notes the St. Louis Record The user also claims they were never provided with a copy of the company's privacy policy as required by law at the time of installation -- or when the user signed service contracts. "The suit is meritless," Charter said in a statement. "Charter does not sell its customers’ personally identifiable information in any form.” The lawsuit comes after large ISPs like Charter lobbied the House and Senate to kill new FCC broadband privacy rules. Like most ISPs, Charter was quick to post a carefully worded statement on the ISP's website stating that the elimination of the rules "does not change, or weaken, Charter’s commitment to the protection of our customers’ online privacy, or our rigorous privacy practices and policies." Interested readers can find the full complaint Interested readers can find the full complaint here (pdf).







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Most recommended from 20 comments

pawpaw

join:2004-05-05

Asheville, NC 6 recommendations pawpaw Member System works as designed A slap on the wrist for Charter, a statement of non-admission of wrongdoing, a sinecure for a judge, a teensy cost-free token reward for the customer, buckets of money for a few lawyers.

Dryvlyne

Far Beyond Driven

Premium Member

join:2004-08-30

Newark, OH 2 recommendations Dryvlyne Premium Member Doubt it can be proved As much as I'd like to see the plaintiff win, I'd like to see what proof they have. This just sounds like a news-grabbing headline that cannot be proven.



For example, how would they even know their data was sold? I'm sure that whatever company may have solicited them didn't voluntarily tell them where they got their info.