Farmers is being sued by a California man who says he rejected tracking cookies on the company's website — but was tracked anyway.
The proposed class action suit was filed in federal court on June 19. The suit says when Stacy Penning went to Farmers.com to get an auto insurance quote, a cookie notice popped up. According to court documents, the pop-up said that the website uses cookies and other tracking technologies, and that users "may accept or reject targeting cookies that sell and/or share your personal information."
Penning says he rejected the cookies but was tracked anyway. He alleges that Farmers still placed cookies from two third-party companies, Adobe Inc. and Qualtrics, and sent them his data. According to the filing, data sent to Adobe that included his ZIP code, that he was seeking personal auto insurance, and that he had previously visited a Hyundai website, revealing the type of car he was trying to insure.
The suit says the incident violates California's Invasion of Privacy Act and brings six counts: invasion of privacy, intrusion upon seclusion, wiretapping, use of a pen register, common law fraud and unjust enrichment.
The proposed class would cover anyone in the U.S. who browsed the Farmers site after rejecting cookies. The suit estimates that's more than 100 people.
The suit is seeking over $5 million in damages, or $5,000 per violation.
Photo credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
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