If you’ve ever browsed Etsy looking for a handmade candle or a quirky T-shirt, you might have unknowingly shared more than just your shopping preferences. A new lawsuit filed last week in California claims that Etsy has been quietly allowing third-party companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft to collect personal data from users through website tools known as pixel trackers, without clear consent.
Pixel trackers are tiny, often invisible bits of code embedded in websites. They kick into gear when a page loads or when you click something, and then they quietly send information to outside companies such as your IP address, browser details, how long you stayed on a page, and what you looked at.
Plaintiff Austin White filed the suit, claiming that Etsy’s use of these trackers violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and other state laws. According to the lawsuit, users never agreed to this kind of tracking on the website.
White is asking the court to stop Etsy from using these trackers and to award damages to affected users. If approved as a class action, the case could potentially include all Etsy users in California whose browsing was tracked in this way.
This lawsuit is part of the growing wave of legal actions filed under CIPA aimed at cracking down on digital surveillance.