GameStop Accused Of Wiretapping Customers

thegamer.com:

GameStop is being accused of recording customer conversations in secret wiretaps and then sharing those transcripts with a third party, according to a new lawsuit.

As reported by Bloomberg Law (via GamesIndustry.biz), plaintiff Miguel Licea is seeing a potential class action against GameStop. Central to the suit is the company’s chat feature on its website, which the suit says records conversations without the customer’s prior knowledge and then shares transcripts with Zendesk, a customer support service provider "that boasts of its ability to harvest personal data."

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GameStop "neither informs visitors nor obtains their prior express consent to these intrusions," reads the suit. If true, this would violate California’s Invasion of Privacy Act which forbids websites from creating transcripts of visitor conversations without "obtaining prior, express consent from all parties to the conversation."

Most website support services get around this law by simply telling visitors that their conversations are being recorded. The suit alleges GameStop "neither informs visitors nor obtains their prior express consent to these intrusions." GameStop then uses these transcripts "for marketing and other purposes."

The suit continued: "Given the nature of Defendant’s business, website visitors typically share highly personal and sensitive data with Defendant when using the website chat feature. Consumers would be shocked and appalled to know that Defendant secretly creates transcripts of those conversations and shares them with a third party."

GameStop has yet to comment on the suit and a trial date has not been set.

Accusations of violating customer privacy protections