Tesla Faces Class Action Under CIPA in Tracking Pixels Case
Tesla was hit with a class-action suit Thursday alleging California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) violations through the car company's use of tracking pixels on its website without the knowledge or consent of visitors. Plaintiff Peter Dawidzik alleged that the company uses the trackers to collect detailed user information like IP addresses, pages visited, mouse movements and even geolocation based on IP, and then shares the data with third parties such as Twitter and Google.
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Dawidzik and other plaintiffs in case 25-01982 didn't "consent to the installation, execution, embedding, or injection of the Trackers on their devices and did not expect their behavioral data to be disclosed or monetized in this way," the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Central California said.
In addition, the complaint alleged Tesla "has a strong financial incentive to deploy the Trackers on its Website without obtaining user consent" because "by enabling the collection of IP addresses and device-level identifiers through these technologies, [it] facilitates integration into real-time bidding ecosystems" which lets the company "participate in data-driven ad targeting, increase the value of its advertising inventory, and track users across sessions and websites, all of which provide economic benefit despite private implications to users."
Dawidzik said the tracking pixels acted as "pen register" and "trap and trace" devices, in violation of CIPA. He also alleged violations of the California Business & Professions Code and other state laws.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.