FLINT, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – Dow Jones & Company is accused of sharing the contact information of subscribers to The Wall Street Journal to other parties, resulting in a barrage of junk mail.
Christopher and Sherree Rentola filed a class action lawsuit June 16 in Michigan federal court against Dow Jones that says the company supplements its revenue by disclosing the home addresses, genders, ages, ethnicities, incomes, religions and political affiliations of its Wall Street Journal customers to data aggregators.
“(W)hat Ms. Rentola received (a subscription without statutory privacy protections) was less valuable than what she paid for (a subscription with accompanying statutory privacy protections), and she would not have willing to pay as much, if at all, for her The Wall Street Journal subscription had she known that Defendant would disclose her personal reading information,” the lawsuit says.
The Rentolas are represented by Bursor & Fisher; Hedin Hall; and Barbat, Mansour & Suciu.
The lawsuit claims Dow Jones violated the Preservation of Personal Privacy Act and seeks “an order of restitution and all other forms of equitable monetary relief.