So here’s another lawsuit that I don’t see going anywhere. I had reported on the Glassdoor email gaffe here a few weeks ago. Now Law360 reports:
The suit lodged by registered Glassdoor member Melissa Levine stems from an email that the site sent to its users on July 22, informing them about changes to its terms of use. Instead of blindly copying email recipients, Glassdoor sent the email with the addresses of more than 2 percent of its members, or over 600,000 people, clearly visible to other recipients, according to the complaint, which noted that each address was made available to at least 999 other members, given that the emails were sent to multiple sets of users 1,000 at a time.
Pointing to the importance of anonymity on a site where members are encouraged to reveal personal and potentially inflammatory details about their jobs, Levine asserted that the email revelation violated users’ privacy rights as well as Glassdoor’s own policies that vow to protect user anonymity, a misstep that she claims constitutes a willful and intentional violation of the Stored Communications Act and state law.
How is an email error in the bcc field a “willful and intentional” violation of the SCA?
A lot of this seems to hinge on the plaintiff’s claim that because Glassdoor revealed email addresses, reviews of companies could be linked to individuals, causing severe distress, and all kinds of other problems. In a very small firm, there might be a chance of identification, but in a large firm?
C’mon, folks….
Read more on Law360.