Morelli Ratner PC works with a wide variety of cases, but our primary focus is on:
When there are large numbers of claims associated with a single product, they may be part of a mass tort. It basically means that an act of negligence on the part of an individual or company resulted in injuring many people. Many factors are considered when deciding if a claim should be part of a mass tort.
On Wednesday, December 7, Morelli Ratner PC filed federal class action lawsuits against spyware maker Carrier IQ in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Morelli Ratner filed the class action on behalf of individual plaintiffs and similarly situated others who own and have used the iPhone 4 on AT&T, the iPhone4S on AT&T, and the HTC/Android OS phone on T-Mobile.
Carrier IQ gained notoriety in the past few weeks after a systems administrator in Connecticut discovered the company’s software surreptitiously recording everything he was doing on his iPhone and transmitting this sensitive data off to parts unknown.
“At issue in this lawsuit is whether Carrier, IQ, Inc., violated certain laws applicable to members of the Class by placing its patented Carrier IQ software on the wireless phone and/or handsets of the members of the Class, including Plaintiffs herein; using that software to track the information that the users of the phone (and/or handset) entered through their keystrokes, including such information as websites visited, messages to other individuals, recording of calls, and all other keystrokes, which were then recorded and relayed to Carrier IQ, Inc. for distribution to third parties – all without the consent or knowledge of the members of the Class, including Plaintiffs herein.”
Carrier IQ’s app is installed in over 140 million phones in the United States alone. The app was designed in such a way as to allow the app to access data on an individual’s phone without that individual knowing. In addition to the privacy violations that appear to have been committed by the app, the software also piggy-backed on phone memory, using up valuable data storage and memory without customers’ knowledge or consent.
Carrier IQ appears to have violated Federal wiretap laws that regulate surreptitious “listening-in” and recording of data like that data which was secretly taken from phone users around the U.S.
As the complaint notes, “Statutory damages are available to Plaintiffs and members of the Class for violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Stored Communications Act.”
Plaintiffs whose data has been illicitly stolen may be entitled to statutory damages in the amount of $100 a day for each violation or $10,000 (whichever is greater).
The Plaintiffs in this case seek to represent the following nationwide Class:
All United States citizens who owned a handset that contained the Carrier IQ software application that intercepted keystroke data where Carrier IQ failed to obtain the consent of handset owner and/or failed to inform the handset owner.
