Three new class action lawsuits collectively have taken aim at the company that operates popular websites that promise “detailed reports” on just about anyone, claiming the websites wrongly use people’s identities and information for profit, in violation of Illinois law.
On June 4, attorneys with the firm of Edelson P.C., of Chicago, filed the related class actions in Chicago federal court, against PeopleConnect Inc.
Seattle-based PeopleConnect owns and operates the “people search” websites known as Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder, Intelius and US Search.
All of the complaints were filed on behalf of named plaintiffs Anna La Fronza and Natalia Kupiec, identified in the complaints only as residents of Illinois.
The lawsuits accuse PeopleConnect, through its websites, of allegedly violating the Illinois Right of Publicity Act by “misappropriating” the identities and personal information of others in Illinois.
According to the lawsuits, PeopleConnect’s sites scrape public databases for information about people, and then package that information into “reports” they sell to people using their websites.
However, the lawsuits assert, PeopleConnect isn’t merely selling information in those reports. Rather, the websites then use that information to attempt to persuade users to purchase subscriptions to their sites, to secure the opportunity to conduct an unlimited number of searches for other people’s personal information.
“Most importantly,” the complaints state, the PeopleConnect sites “never obtained written consent from Plaintiffs … to use their names for any reason, let alone for commercial purposes,” the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Kupiec and La Fronza discovered their names were being used on the marketing pages of the PeopleConnect websites to promote subscription sales. The marketing pages also included their locations, ages and names of immediate family members, according to the complaints.
The plaintiffs are seeking to expand their lawsuits to include any Illinois residents “whose identities were displayed” on the PeopleConnect sites’ marketing pages, and “who have never purchased any products or services on” the PeopleConnect sites, including Instant Checkmate, Truthfinder, Intelius and US Search.
The complaints seek an order directing PeopleConnect to pay damages of $1,000 per violation on behalf of all plaintiffs and class members, plus punitive damages and attorney fees.
Plaintiffs are represented in the actions by attorneys Benjamin H. Richman, Ari J. Scharg and Benjamin Thomassen, of the firm of Edelson P.C.; Philip L. Fraietta, of Bursor & Fisher, of New York; and J. Dominick Larry, of Nick Larry Law, of Chicago.