Fort Washington-based Nutrisystem facing class-action lawsuit for privacy law violation

Nutrisystem, a national diet company headquartered at 1100 Virginia Drive in Fort Washington, is facing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Amelia Ingrao of California, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today.

Ingrao received an unexpected email from Nutrisystem last month after browsing the company’s website. According to the lawsuit, she never gave the company her email address, never visited the site before, and never gave any of her personal information to Nutrisystem, The Inquirer said.

Ingrao “was shocked that her personal browsing history was now being sent to her by a company she never provided her email address,” according to a class-action lawsuit filed last week on her behalf in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

According to court documents, Nutrisystem participates in SafeOpt, a “data co-op” which allowed the intrusion and allegedly violates privacy laws in California. SafeOpt is run by North Carolina-based ecommerce company AddShoppers.

“AddShoppers’ mission is to save shoppers time and money by bringing them timely offers from brands they love. We do not create ‘dossiers,’ and we do not collect sensitive data,” general counsel David Hale said in a statement. “For the little information we collect and use on behalf of our brand clients, we offer easy opt-out mechanisms and a simple way to request deletion.”

The suit is asking for Nutrisystem to pay Ingrao and any other affected consumers at least $5,000 for each time it violated privacy laws through its partnership with AddShoppers, The Inquirer said.

In related news, Harold Katz, the founder of the first Nutrisystem center in Willow Grove and a former owner of the 76ers, died on Friday, January 24. He was 87.

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