A U.S. district judge in Milwaukee has dismissed a lawsuit that accused Time Warner Cable of keeping subscribers' personal information after they ended their cable service.
Derek Gubala, formerly of Oak Creek, claimed that Time Warner Cable kept personal identifiable information such as names and addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers and credit card accounts of former customers, in violation of the Cable Communications Policy Act.
The CCPA would provide for liquidated damages of $100 per day of violation, plus punitive damages and attorney fees.
Gubala accused Time Warner Cable of putting former customers at risk of identity theft and other dangers. His lawyers wanted a class-action status for his lawsuit.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper dismissed the case, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in a case involving a Virginia man who sued the internet search firm Spokeo for posting false information about people.
The Supreme Court said consumers could bring legal claims in such cases only if the information used by the company caused actual harm to the plaintiffs. Consumer rights advocates had sought a broader ruling that would let people sue without showing a real injury.
Gubala, who now lives in Illinois, was represented by attorney Joseph Siprut of Chicago, who previously filed similar lawsuits in California against Time Warner Cable.
At least one of those cases wound up in arbitration, the preferred method for companies to avoid potentially pricey, class-action lawsuits.
"We will be appealing the court's order immediately," Siprut said Monday.
Time Warner Cable declined to comment.
The lawsuit contended that, while the company's privacy policy indicates that subscribers' personal information is destroyed after it's no longer needed, the company actually keeps it all indefinitely.
Gubala was a Time Warner Cable subscriber from 2004 to 2006, according to his suit, but when he called the company again in 2014, he learned it still had all his personally identifiable information on file.
"There are numerous serious and troubling privacy issues implicated by TWC's practice of retaining and misusing their former customers' personal information, including the risk of identity theft and conversion of personal financial accounts," the suit noted.
That kind of data "functions as a new form of currency that supports a $26 billion per year online advertising industry in the United States," according to the suit, and has growing value to each individual consumer.
The Time Warner Cable decision was consistent with the Supreme Court ruling regarding Spokeo, said Ed Fallone, associate professor of law at Marquette University.
Read full story at http://www.jsonline.com/business/time-warner-privacy-lawsuit-dismissed-by-wisconsin-judge-b99747756z1-383704861.html
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