Economist, Newsweek Unlawfully Rent Subscriber Data, Suits Say

The Economist, Newsweek, Outside Integrated Media, and Harvard Business Publishing Corp. reveal and profit from the personal information of their subscribers in violation of state privacy law, according to a group of class action suits filed Thursday in federal court in Michigan.

Law firm Bursor & Fisher PA represents the plaintiffs in all four of the similarly worded complaints filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The Newsweek complaint, for example, says the company rents, exchanges, or otherwise discloses detailed information about magazine subscribers without their consent to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, ...