Overview of the Twilio privacy class action lawsuit:
- WHO: Plaintiff Noah Bender has filed a class action lawsuit against Twilio Inc.
- Why: Bender alleges that Twilio eavesdrops on consumers’ confidential in-app communications through a software development kit that developers discreetly embed into mobile apps.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in California.
Cloud Communications: Twilio eavesdrops on consumers’ confidential in-app communications, a new class action lawsuit claims.
In his class action lawsuit, plaintiff Noah Bender alleges that Twilio collects “incredibly” sensitive data from “unsuspecting” consumers whose developers embedded the company’s software development kit (SDK) segment into their mobile apps.
“Thousands of developers embedded Twilio’s Segment SDK in their mobile apps, allowing them to harvest data from millions of consumers,” Twilio’s class action lawsuit states.
Bender seeks to represent a statewide class and a California subclass of consumers who embedded Twilio’s Segment SDK in an app on their mobile phone without any public mention of “Twilio” in any of the app’s communications or disclosures.
Twilio collects data to compile a “comprehensive digital dossier” on consumers and class action lawsuits
Bender argues that Twilio collects sensitive data such as search terms, search results, keystrokes and button presses of consumers in the app, page views, and consumers’ names and email addresses.
The data collected reveals consumers’ preferences and interests as well as information about “other behavioral characteristics,” Twilio’s class action lawsuit says.
“Armed with a wealth of data about the consumer, Twilio uses its proprietary artificial intelligence to correlate data from multiple sources and compile a comprehensive digital dossier about each consumer,” Twilio’s class action lawsuit states.
Bender claims Twilio violates the Wiretapping Act and California Comprehensive law against computer data access and fraud And California Wiretapping Law.
The plaintiff demands a jury trial and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief as well as an award of contractual and punitive damages for himself and all class members.
More news about Twilio: confirmed last month that a data breach had occurred. The confirmation came after a hacker posted on a hacker forum in May that he had stolen 33 million phone numbers from Twilio customers.
Have you used an app discreetly embedded in Twilio’s Segment SDK? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by Rafey Balabanian, Jared Lucky and Schuyler Ufkes of Edelson PC.
The Class action lawsuit over data protection at Twilio Is Bender et al. v. Twilio Inc.Case No. 3:24-cv-04914, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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