GameStop Sued Over Secret Recording of Website Users’ Chats

Gamestop Corp. secretly wiretaps the chat feature on its website and then shares the transcripts with a third party that harvests the data for marketing purposes, according to a complaint filed in federal court in California.

Miguel A. Licea filed the proposed class action against GameStop Tuesday, alleging that the company violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act by creating transcripts of website visitor’s conversations without obtaining prior consent.

Licea claims that GameStop then shares the secret transcripts with Zendesk, a software company, which uses the highly personal information for sales and marketing.

The practice has affected tens of thousands ...