The case was about DoubleClick’s use of cookies to build profiles of internet users. A cookie is a small file that a web site puts on a visitor’s hard disk, usually so that site can remember something about the visitor at a later time. Visitors to sites affiliated with DoubleClick had cookies installed on their computers.
Some of those who downloaded cookies sued the company last year, citing invasion of privacy by secretly collecting personal and private data, such as e-mail addresses, unjust enrichment and violation of federal laws against hacking or unauthorised access to users’ data.
However, the New York Law Journal today reports that Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed the case on the ground that those suing had failed to state a viable claim, observing that they failed to prove their assertion that the company’s access was unauthorised. She added that collecting information with cookies did not break US hacking laws.
According to the New York Law Journal, Judge Buchwald compared the data stored in cookies to that which is “constantly collected on all consumers” by retailers, observing that no US court has ruled that such data damages consumers or constitutes unjust enrichment to the collectors.
This success for DoubleClick follows a decision in January by the Federal Trade Commission to drop an investigation into the company’s privacy practices. The FTC was responding to similar consumer concerns that DoubleClick could create personalised profiles of them. However, it decided that the company’s use of data was consistent with its own privacy policy.