RealNetworks Is Target of Suit in California Over Privacy Issue
California lawyer has filed a
$500 million class-action lawsuit
against RealNetworks, a leading
maker of Internet multimedia software, charging that the company violated that state's unfair business
practices law by distributing software that secretly gathered data
about users and transmitted it back
to the company on the Internet.
The lawsuit, which was filed on
Friday, came to light Monday only
hours after RealNetworks and
TRUSTe, a nonprofit group that
awards privacy seals of approval to
Web sites, announced new plans to
address consumer privacy concerns.
Last week, after it was reported
that its RealJukebox software continually transmits personal information about its users to the company,
RealNetworks publicly acknowledged that the activity was improper
and issued a fix for the software.
RealNetworks' new privacy policy
allows customers to give informed
consent before personally identifiable information about them is collected or used.
The company also updated its Web
site privacy statement to disclose in
detail how the software communicates with Web sites over the Internet, and agreed to a third-party audit
of its privacy policies. RealNetworks' original Web privacy policy was backed by TRUSTe's seal,
and the group said yesterday that it
was also changing its policies in response to hundreds of e-mails from
concerned consumers after RealNetworks' practices were disclosed.
It is starting a pilot program with
RealNetworks to address privacy issues for data gathered by software
as well as by Web sites.
The class action was filed by Jeffrey Spencer of Mission Viejo, Calif.
