Patagonia is in hot water over allegations that it illegally implemented hidden digital spy trackers within its correspondence to consumers and used them to obtain sensitive information.
A class-action lawsuit filed by Heather Knight in Arizona federal court last week accused the Ventura, Calif.-based outdoor brand of violating the state’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Record Act. According to the suit, Patagonia neglected to inform shoppers that it was utilizing tracking pixels embedded in promotional emails to capture data and insights about them.
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The plaintiff said she was not aware that the trackers, otherwise known as “spy pixels,” were being employed, and therefore couldn’t give her consent. Made from snippets of HTML code, the pixels load when a consumer opens an email or a visits a website, and companies typically leverage them to track online behavior and conversions in order to inform their marketing strategies.
“Defendant’s invasive surveillance of Plaintiff’s sensitive reading habits and clandestine
collection of her confidential email records invaded her privacy and intruded upon her seclusion,” Knight’s lawsuit read.
The Arizona Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act prohibits a person or organization from knowingly garnering a “communication service record”—which includes subscriber information ranging from name to billing address, payment methods, phone numbers, associated screen names or aliases and more—without authorization or through subversive methods.
Knight alleged that Patagonia’s tracking pixels picked up on information like her location, her IP address and information about her digital device. They also served to inform the brand about how much time she spent reading the marketing emails, along with where and when they were read.
Now, Knight is seeking others who have opened similar emails from Patagonia to join the class-action lawsuit. She is pushing for a trial by jury and is requesting declaratory and injunctive relief, meaning that the brand won’t be able to employ such methods without warning consumers in the future. She’s also pursuing damages for herself and anyone who joins the suit.
Unlawful data tracking lawsuits have snowballed in recent years. Arizona also saw a similar suit brought against Home Depot earlier this spring, wherein plaintiff Ivonne Carbajal alleged that the retailer leveraged tracking pixels from Validity Inc. in its marketing emails to gather and store information about her without her consent. The insights included where and when she opened the emails and how much time she spent reading them.
In April, Arizona resident Arlette Campos also filed a class-action lawsuit under the Arizona Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act against TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods owner TJX, alleging that the company used spy pixels in its promotional emails. According to the plaintiff, the trackers were automatically downloaded without her knowledge when she opened an email from TJX, allowing the company to access information she deemed sensitive for its own commercial gain.
