GameStop is being sued for apparently wiretapping its customers' support chats and then selling the data to a third party for marketing purposes. The lawsuit alleges that GameStop recorded these chats without customers' consent, constituting a violation of US privacy law.
Why is GameStop being sued?
According to Bloomberg (note: article behind paywall, so we're using additional reporting by GamesIndustry.biz), GameStop is being accused of sharing "secret transcripts" with Zendesk, a third-party company that "boasts" of its prowess in harvesting and using data for marketing purposes. The lawsuit alleges that GameStop doesn't ask for user consent in recording or sharing these chats.
The lawsuit goes on to say that GameStop's visitors share "highly personal and sensitive" information with support agents and that those visitors would be "shocked and appalled" to learn that their data was being used in this way. As such, GameStop stands accused of violating CIPA (the California Invasion of Privacy Act), according to which companies are not allowed to record conversations without obtaining express prior consent.
Miguel Licea, a lawyer working on the behalf of the plaintiffs, says that complying with CIPA is "easy" and that most companies comply with it, so in essence, GameStop is willingly disregarding CIPA in order to sell customers' chats to marketing companies. It's not a great look, so if it turns out to be true, GameStop has a lot of 'splaining to do. We've reached out to the company for comment on this story.
Not good news for GameStop
If this does turn out to be true, it's not going to be good news for GameStop, especially at a time when the company will likely be hoping it can shore up customer faith in its NFT marketplace. Much like the rather odd surge in GameStop stock trading that kicked off in late 2020, this is publicity the company probably doesn't really want.
We'll have to wait and see what comes of this GameStop lawsuit. It's worth saying that nothing has been proven yet; this lawsuit is an accusation, not proof in and of itself. As the lawsuit progresses, we'll likely learn more about whether there's any truth to these allegations. Stay tuned for more on that.
