Ford Consumer Advances Eavesdropping Suit Over Chat Recordings

Ford Motor Co. must face a proposed class action alleging it allowed a third-party software vendor to record website chats between consumers and its customer-support agents in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Plaintiff Rebeka Rodriguez sufficiently pleaded in her second amended complaint that Ford aided and abetted its vendor LivePerson Inc.'s violations of the anti-eavesdropping provisions of the CIPA, the US District Court for the Southern District of California said Tuesday, letting the suit move forward. However Judge Ruth B. Montenegro dismissed Rodriguez’s wiretapping claim.

Rodriguez alleged that Ford incorporated LivePerson’s chat software on its website, allowing ...