Spokeo ‘Teaser’ Profiles Not Protected Under First Amendment

Spokeo Inc. must face a proposed class action brought by individuals who claim that the people-search website used “teaser” profiles of them to advertise paid subscriptions to the website without their consent, according to a California federal judge.

Aviva Kellman, Jason Fry, and Nicholas Newell claim that Spokeo violated their rights of publicity and appropriated their names and likenesses when it displayed the teaser profiles, which listed some of their personal information and claimed to have additional information—like criminal history—that they could access with a paid subscription.

Spokeo argued that the teaser profiles were speech protected under the First Amendment, ...