Canadian courts have approved a class action lawsuit against Home Depot, which alleges that the company shared customer information with Facebook owner Meta without their consent.
Newsweek reached out to Home Depot's communications team over email for comment.
Why It Matters
Class action lawsuits are filed on behalf of a larger group of people who have undergone similar harm or legal grievances. Typically this is the most efficient way to go about a lawsuit rather than multiple individual claims.
What is the class action lawsuit against Home Depot?
Justice Peter Edelmann allowed for the certification of the class action on Tuesday for the alleged breach of privacy. The certification, however, is not a finding of wrongdoing.
Customers were allegedly offered the option to receive their receipts by email, but they also did not consent to Home Depot using their information for other reasons. Their email addresses and other purchasing information were shared with Meta.
Edelmann's decision states that Meta offered a service to help Home Depot understand its advertising campaigns on social media and how they were leading to in-store sales.
Home Depot had argued that customers had no reasonable expectation of privacy because the information shared with Meta was less sensitive. Edelmann, however, said the privacy expectations "cannot be assessed on a piecemeal basis."
"I frankly find Home Depot's position somewhat perplexing," Edelmann's decision reads. "When assessing its marketing strategies and managing its business interests, Home Depot was clearly able to compile data related to several million individual email addresses and arrange to have Meta undertake sophisticated data analysis on its behalf. However, when it comes to assessing the impact for the individuals concerned, it is presumably impossible to do so using even the most rudimentary tools of data analysis."
The decision involves over six million emails with Meta over multiple years. Edelmann noted that it is unclear what parts of the relevant data have been retained by Meta or Home Depot, but that Home Depot has "access to some or all of the information related to the transactions and emails at issue."
Who is eligible for the class action lawsuit?
The class includes anyone in British Columbia Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Newfoundland and Labrador who shopped at Home Depot between October 1, 2018, and October 31, 2022. They must have provided their email addresses to receive an electronic receipt.
Why Americans aren't eligible
Canadian class actions have different requirements than U.S. class actions.
Home Depot's privacy and security statement: US vs. Canada
Both the United States and Canadian Home Depot privacy and security statement notes that "while operating our business and interacting with you, we collect, use, and disclose personal information."
"We do so to process and fulfill your orders, to improve our in-store and digital offerings, to create consistent in-store and digital experiences for you, to protect the rights and information of our customers and our company, and for the other purposes disclosed in this Privacy and Security Statement," the statements read.
The United States Home Depot's statement applies to the use of websites, smart devices, social media, phone and email communications with the company, and visits to stores and events. The statement says Home Depot collects this information themselves and through "business partners and other third parties."
The Canadian statement specifies that the "social media interactions" are with sites like "Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google, Instagram, Threads and Twitter." It also goes more in-depth about the type of information collected, such as "name, email address, phone number, user name, physical address, device identifier, government-issued identification number, date of birth/age, licence (sic) plate number, and social media handle." The company also collects information on demographics and what people use to make their accounts like usernames and passwords as well as government-issued photo ID for returns. There is also gathered information on people's properties, like their square footage and lot size.
It says in the United States, that the information is used for fulfilling orders, customer care, communicating, fraud prevention, marketing and learning customer trends. This is similar to the Canadian response. The Canada site, however, is more built out with bullet points.
In the United States, the information is disclosed to manufacturers, marketing partners, law enforcement and affiliates.
What's Next
With the class action certified, the case now moves forward in court. A trial will address whether Home Depot violated privacy laws and what form of compensation customers are entitled to.
People can sign up on the class action website without any financial commitment.
According to Edelmann's decision, other class proceedings making similar allegations have started in Québec and Saskatchewan in Canada as well.
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