In just the past few weeks, multiple class actions have been filed in California against a variety of companies, including Tiffany & Co., Dollar Shave Club, Goodyear Tires, M.A.C. Cosmetics and Michael Kors USA, making the surprising allegation that the companies engage in illegal wiretapping of online communications with consumers. The complaints'all filed by the same lawyer'allege that the defendants secretly deploy "keystroke monitoring" software that is used to intercept, monitor and record communications with visitors to their websites. The plaintiffs assert, on behalf of themselves and putative class members, that by doing so, the defendants have violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code Section 631).
The complaints primarily revolve around consumers' communications with sophisticated "chatbots" that "convincingly" impersonate an actual human. According the complaints' allegations, the chatbots not only encourage consumers to share their personal information but record and store the entire conversation without the consumer's knowledge or permission. Thus, any company that uses chatbots is a potential target of these class action lawsuits.
Section 631(a) of California's Penal Code imposes liability upon any entity that engages in conduct prohibited by that section'i.e., "by means of any machine, instrument, contrivance, or in any other manner":
(1) "intentionally taps, or makes any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically, acoustically, inductively, or otherwise, with any telegraph or telephone wire, line, cable, or instrument, including the wire, line, cable, or instrument of any internal...
