What’s the harm if an internet ad tracks your every move? Not much, says a California judge. Can you sue for invasion of privacy? Maybe, but you might not get very far after a Golden State judge threw out a class-action suit against Specific Media for allegedly tracking users’ online behavior.
Judge George Wu of the Central District of California said plaintiffs didn’t prove any harm was done before he threw out the suit this week, according to Reuters.
The question in this case was not whether “Flash cookies” tracked users, but whether the plaintiffs “can allege that they were injured by them,” Wu wrote.
The suit was filed following a 2009 study that found that nearly 50 percent of major websites were tracking folks using the technology.
Scott Kamber, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, told Reuters they’d be back with a new filing:
Given the fact that the other Flash cookie cases have settled for millions of dollars for precisely the same conduct, plaintiffs here are confident we can successfully plead our case.
