An electronics company whose television sets are in millions of homes lost a round in its battle against allegations that its TVs spy on consumers.
A federal judge ruled against Vizio in the case, according to The Hollywood Reporter, ruling that consumers can pursue allegations of illegal wiretapping against the company.
“For the second time this year, Vizio has failed in a bid to undercut a proposed class action lawsuit targeting the way its Internet-connected Smart TVs collect and disseminate information about viewers,” THR reports. “In fact, thanks to a decision from a California federal judge Tuesday, the legal action seems to be growing in magnitude.”
The report adds: “Vizio has acknowledged that until recently, its Smart TVs automatically collected information. In February, the company came to a $2.2 million settlement with the FTC to resolve an investigation into this. Vizio pledged it would henceforth obtain affirmative express consent when it wishes to collect and share data about the habits of its customer base.”
Vizio has asserted all along that the data it has collected is not paired with personally identifiable information, THR notes.
If this case ends up deciding that collecting information on consumers without their consent is illegal, I want to see how that is applied to the credit industry. Every transaction a consumer has is recorded, DIRECTLY attributed to a specific individual, transferred to third parties who then aggregate the information and sell it to other businesses. All without the consent of the individual consumer. If we can tell marketers “do not call”, “do not track” and now, don’t collect info about my TV watching – why would our purchasing and payment activity be any different? And along the same lines – credit reporting agencies should have liability for any inaccurate information they provide. It should not be up to the consumer to do their work for them! I use no credit. No mortgage, credit cards. I have seen the havoc the credit agencies have caused for people close to me. I hope this case becomes a jumping off point for some lawyers looking for a great payday handling what could be the largest class action ever!
And yes I know that buried in the 6 point type of credit card and loan agreements is a well hidden line that says the consumer agrees to the collection of the information, but we all know that they deliberately try to hide that information. Let’s require that to be front and center on all agreements and let’s make the agencies responsible for any inaccurate information they deliver to anyone.