A California federal court has refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging that Condé Nast unlawfully installed online trackers on its websites, signaling yet another instance of courts applying a decades-old privacy statute to modern data collection practices.
The lawsuit alleges that when the plaintiff visited Condé Nast-owned publications’ websites such as The New Yorker and Wired, the company enabled third-party trackers from Google, Audiencerate, and Neustar to be installed on his browser without his consent. According to the complaint, these trackers collected his IP address, set cookies with unique identifiers, and facilitated the creation of advertising profiles that revealed sensitive details such as location, income, and browsing preferences.
At issue is whether Condé Nast’s...
