Judge Rejects Amazon's Bid To Dismiss Privacy Lawsuit

In a mixed ruling, a federal judge has narrowed a potential class-action privacy lawsuit alleging that Amazon thwarted users' attempts to block tracking cookies. But U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle rejected the online retailer's bid to completely dismiss the case.

The lawsuit stems from allegations that Amazon circumvented privacy filters built into the Internet Explorer browser by giving wrong information to the browser. The consumers who filed suit alleged that Amazon violated a federal computer fraud law, as well as Washington consumer protection law. The consumers sued shortly after researchers at Carnegie Mellon published a study concluding that many Web companies thwart users' privacy settings by providing incorrect data to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. That browser has long enabled users to automatically reject tracking cookies, but the feature only works when Web site operators provide accurate data about their privacy policies. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon sent "gibberish" to the browser, rather than using a readable code. Judge Lasnik dismissed the computer fraud charges on the theory that the consumers didn't allege that Amazon caused them economic injury. The computer fraud allegation at the center of the lawsuit requires damages of at least $5,000.