A man is suing a gay porn site after he received “a barrage” of junk mail because he said it sold his information without written consent and violated his privacy rights.
Dennis Chiamulera is also seeking class action status on behalf of other subscribers to the site who he thinks are in a similar situation.
He said his privacy rights were violated by the site, owned by TLA Entertainment Group, under the Video Privacy Protection Act and the New York Video Consumer Privacy Act
According to Out, the New York plaintiff is asking for $5 million for “wrongful disclosure of video tape rental or sales records”, including $2,500 in damages for every other plaintiff in the case if it gets class action status.
The lawsuit read: “Despite the sensitive nature of its videos, TLA sold, rented, exchanged, and/or otherwise disclosed personal information about Plaintiff’s video purchases and/or rentals to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and list brokers, among others, which in turn disclosed his information to aggressive advertisers, nonprofit organisations, and other third-party companies.”
Chiamulera claims that the gay porn site’s “disclosure of Personal Viewing Information, and other personal, demographic, and lifestyle information is not only unlawful, but also dangerous because it allows for the targeting of particularly vulnerable members of society, including members of the LGBTQ community”.
The Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit alleges, according to the New York Post, that TLA Entertainment Group breaks down its subscribers by sexual orientation and which films they rent or buy.
The lawsuit stated: “In fact, almost any organisation could rent a list with the names and addresses of all gay TLA consumers who live in Texas; such a list would cost approximately $135 per thousand names listed.”
The court papers claimed that TLA “profits handsomely” from selling information, “at the expense of its consumers’ privacy and statutory rights.”