The lawsuit, filed by Texas resident Lourdes Villegas in U.S. District Court in Silicon Valley's San Jose, accuses the companies of violating federal computer fraud and wiretap laws, as well as California state laws, by circumventing the Safari browser's no-tracking settings.
Villegas is seeking class-action status, according to a Media Post story this afternoon.
While Google has been hit with several other lawsuits for allegedly tracking Safari users, Villegas appears to be the first user to sue Gannett's advertising software services subsidiary for the potential privacy violations.
A PointRoll spokesperson told Media Post the company "believes the claims set forth in the complaint are meritless and intends to vigorously defend against them."
The apparent violations were first reported Feb. 17 by The Wall Street Journal.
While Google has been hit with several other lawsuits for allegedly tracking Safari users, Villegas appears to be the first user to sue Gannett's advertising software services subsidiary for the potential privacy violations.
A PointRoll spokesperson told Media Post the company "believes the claims set forth in the complaint are meritless and intends to vigorously defend against them."
The apparent violations were first reported Feb. 17 by The Wall Street Journal.
Pointroll is a total disaster. First of all, the senior executives running Pointroll are totally clueless.
ReplyDeleteRob Gatto has been trying to sell Pointroll to Digital Generation also know as DGFast. He has also been trying to sell the company to Adgregate Knowledge. The problem is that Gannett is not even considering a sale.
Sarah Ripmaster, the presumed head of sales, has been missing her revenue forecast for this year. On top of last years bad miss, we all wonder why she is still employed here.
Gracia Martore has been trying to micro-manage Pointroll, but the Pointroll managers have been defiant and have been creating problems for Gannett (HR issues, Privacy issues and unethical reporting).
Pointroll was the golden child of Gannett many years ago, today it is an embarrassment. Pointroll is losing top clients, top sales reps and has been losing to smaller competitors.
Catherine Spurway is checked out. Sandy is looking for other "opportunities" and Rob and Sarah are tied at the hip trying to protect each other.
It is quite a scene here. Someone from corporate should check it out.
Oh, someone should start showing the pictures from our sales conference in Vegas! I am sure that will get Gannett's HR department up in arms!!!
Check out this crazy look...
ReplyDeletehttp://anse.rs/ydRXyt
Ok Rob...what about those illegal Flash ads we deploy!?!?
ReplyDeleteInformation Regarding Wall Street Journal Article
Feb 17, 2012
Rob Gatto 0 2
PointRoll’s name was included in a Wall Street Journal article this morning about online advertising privacy issues related to mobile ads and the Safari browser. I wanted to provide additional insight as to why we were included in the article and reinforce our current stance on the issue.
PointRoll does not currently employ the Safari technique outlined in the article. PointRoll conducted a limited test within the Safari browser to determine the effectiveness of our mobile ads. The test did not involve the collection, retention or resale of any specific user information. The limited test ended on February 8, 2012, and we made the decision not to employ this practice further.
The Safari technique is not available for any PointRoll clients and is not a part of our standard service offering.
I encourage any of our partners who have additional questions to reach out to me directly at rgatto@pointroll.com
Pointroll should fess up about some of the other dirty tricks they are doing with our clients data like Ford Motor Media and the data they are sharing with data management platforms and DSPs!
ReplyDeleteHow about that Sarah?
There is no such thing as work life balance at all. Free lunch? Because they don't want you to leave the building. It is not a perk - just a tool to keep you working throughout. Management is passive aggressive to the point that communication can become very difficult. You are expected to be up and answering emails either by laptop or BB 7 days a week and at all hours of the night. There is no clear process in place to implement what the client has requested. The back end technology is antiquated and not fully tested before deployment and you are there to clean up the mess with the client. Sales will throw anyone out for sacrifice in order to make themselves look like they weren't part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteDon't plan on doing the following: getting sick, getting married, getting pregnant, having a death in the family, god forbid one of your parents, brothers, sisters, etc. fall ill. They do not care. And you will notice this culture very soon after arriving. The mood in the office is quiet. No one smiles and it's rare that anyone comes out of the office to interact. The look on people's faces is that of a deer in headlights. Oh, there is also quite a bit of crying as well. You can feel the negativity almost instantly.
Wow 8:44, thanks for pulling that old review from glassdoor.com and posting it here, helpful - not.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing's changed since that old review . . .
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