Forbes preliminarily agrees to pay $10 million to settle California wiretapping lawsuit

Forbes Media has preliminarily agreed to pay $10 million and change its business practices to settle a class action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs who allege its website tracked them across the internet without their consent.

The preliminary settlement agreement, released on Thursday, said that Forbes has agreed to give users “greater notice” of its use of trackers and will add language to its website providing  California residents with more control over how their data is collected and shared with third parties.

Plaintiffs had alleged that Forbes violated California’s invasion of Privacy Act and Unfair Competition Law by using pen registers and trap and trace devices to collect unique IP addresses and other identifiers from users of its website.

The trackers installed on the website were developed by LinkedIn and Microsoft, according to the plaintiffs. They collected and sent users’ unique identifiers to the companies and other third parties who then fed the data into “large databases to compile and use information about specific users’ browsing and shopping habits across the internet,” the preliminary settlement agreement said.

Class members will receive an estimated $32 to $189 each based on the estimated number of claimants, according to the agreement.

A spokesperson for Forbes Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.