An Arizona woman is accusing Clayton-based footwear company Caleres, Inc. of unlawfully spying on its email subscribers.
In a class action lawsuit filed in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County’s Circuit Court on Aug. 21, Michelle Cummings, of Phoenix, claims that Caleres embeds hidden spy pixel trackers in its marketing emails without consent from recipients.
Cummings subscribes to an email marketing list of Famous Footwear, one of Caleres’ shoe brands, and has opened promotional emails for over 10 years.
According to the petition, these pixels track and log users’ reading habits and private information, like the time and place subscribers open and read their messages, how long they read the email, their location, IP address, device information, whether the email is forwarded or printed and more.
Cummings is suing the company for violating Arizona’s Telephone, Utility and Communication Service Records Act, which prohibits procuring or attempting to procure the communication service records of email recipients without their authorization.
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“[Caleres] exploits this data to build customer profiles so it can sell and market more products to them,†the lawsuit reads. “Its recipients may be aware that they receive marketing emails, but they are not aware of, nor do they consent to, [Caleres’] surreptitious means of tracking their sensitive reading behavior.â€
The suit asks for $1,000 in damages for each of Caleres’ violations (each time the footwear company sent an email with spy pixels) or actual damages, whichever is more, and for damages equal to any profits Caleres made for each violation. Cummings also asks for a jury trial.
Kelly Malone, company spokesperson, said Caleres does not comment on pending litigation.
Caleres operates brands such as Famous Footwear, Sam Edelman and Dr. Scholl’s Shoes. The company is headquartered at 8300 Maryland Avenue.