A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed, for now, a suit filed against Amazon.com by a computer user who accused the online retailer of purposefully circumventing her attempts to block the company’s website from tracking her online activity.
The case highlights a key legal issue associated with the widespread use of online tracking technology — commonly known as cookies — to collect information about browsing activity, often for the purpose of targeting ads to users based on their browsing habits.
In the proposed class action, Amazon user Nicole Del Vecchio alleged that the company misappropriated her personal information and hurt the performance of her PC by depositing an alternative type of tracking cookie, based on Adobe Flash, that couldn’t be blocked by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
The stumbling block: Even if the allegations were true, the plaintiff didn’t show that she suffered at least $5,000 in damages, the threshold for civil cases set by the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
That was the conclusion of U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in his dismissal of the suit this week.
Lawyer Venkat Balasubramani, who alerted us to the ruling, offers his analysis in this post.
The case might not be over. The judge gave lawyers for the plaintiff 30 days to file a new complaint detailing the actual losses suffered, if they can. Here’s the original complaint, for more background.
