A class of Michigan residents maintained in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that Thomson Reuters search engine runs afoul of state privacy laws.
CHICAGO (CN) — A class of Michiganders asserted in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that a Thomson Reuters search engine wrongfully published their Social Security numbers.
In an 11-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the class claims Reuters search engines publicly displayed plaintiffs’ social security numbers in violation of a Michigan privacy law.
The Michigan Social Security Number Privacy Act, enacted in 2004, bars businesses from using more than four digits of a Social Security number. The class says Reuters knowingly and publicly displayed five sequential digits on its Thomson Reuters CLEAR and Westlaw PeopleMap platforms.
A similar class action was dismissed without prejudice by a Michigan trial court, a decision the Michigan Court of Appeals later affirmed and the Michigan Supreme Court denied an application for leave to appeal. The crux of the Michigan Court of Appeals’ opinion focused on the class’s failure to claim actual damages.
“[P]laintiffs did not allege that defendant actually disclosed their private information to so many persons that made it substantially certain that their Social Security numbers would become public knowledge. Rather, they alleged that subscribers might be capable of accessing, duplicating, and disseminating that information,” Michigan Court of Appeals Judge James Robert Redford wrote in three judge panel’s final opinion and order. “Plaintiffs also did not allege that their private information constituted information highly offensive to a reasonable person. Instead, plaintiffs alleged that reasonable persons might find Social Security number disclosure offensive.”
Outside Michigan, the Thomson Reuters CLEAR platform has faced scrutiny over privacy concerns. The database, Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting, compiles billions of data points on individuals, including addresses, driving and arrest records and social media activity.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement use CLEAR to access license plate data, thereby bypassing restrictions that limit direct data sharing with local agencies in sanctuary cities. In Chicago, for example, a city ordinance bars police from assisting ICE in enforcing immigration laws.
A former Reuters legal editor also sued the company, saying she was wrongfully fired after organizing employees to oppose its contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Billie Little, the Oregon woman who led the charge against Reuters cooperation with DHS and ICE, was told by her human resources manager that she was being put under investigation for violating the company’s confidentiality and data sharing policies. She was terminated days later after two decades with the company.
“Of the many employees who participated in raising these concerns, Little is, to her knowledge, the only employee who was fired,” Little’s attorney, Maria Witt, wrote in the 15-page complaint filed in the Oregon U.S. District Court in Portland. “She was singled out because she was the most visible leader and Thomson Reuters sought to make an example of her.”
A representative from Thomson Reuters did not respond to Courthouse News’ request for comment.
