Did Washington State Based Costco Compromise Your Personal Info?

Mega wholesaler Costco is the subject of a new class action lawsuit filed Friday in United States District Court, more specifically the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

Get our free mobile app

The suit was filed there as Costco is based in Issaquah.  The suit, filed by four California residents, claims Costco shared private information with Meta (Facebook's parent company) without their approval.  The suit was first reported by the Seattle Times.

How Was the Information Shared?

Meta, who is not named in the lawsuit, has a tool called Meta Pixel that can show data related to actions taken on your website such as adding items to a shopping cart or visiting certain pages.  It is especially helpful when it comes to tracking the effectiveness of advertising.

The biggest allegation in the suit states Costco installed that tool on it's website and by doing so, gave Meta access to customer data on Costco's website.  In this day and age it may not seem like a big deal since practically everything you do/own seems like it is tracked...this has a wrinkle.

The wrinkle is...

Costco also gives online customers the ability to schedule pharmacy appointments and fill prescriptions through their website.  The same website with the Meta pixel tool installed that shares information.

The crux of the lawsuit is that Meta was able to gain access to personal info like prescriptions, data related to health insurance, patient treatment, and the location of patients without consent.  The suit contends as a result that privacy was violated and privacy laws were broken.

The New York Post reported that a jury trial has been requested and a separate summons was filed in the same court on the same day giving Costco 21 days to respond.