The suit, which seeks class-action status, claims that Network Solutions-hosted email business is defective because the company “knowingly failed to install industry-standard hardware and/or software that would have prevented the release of this information.”
Network Solutions sells email services when it bundles registration of domain names. The company also offers web hosting, website design, online marketing and search engine optimization.
Doe, in the suit, said that Network Solutions customers have been faced with “public snooping on their bank accounts, Social Security numbers, romantic lives, business and social plans” because surfers can get that information through “snap shots” of customers’ email in-boxes through Google, Internet archives and caches, the complaint states.
“With a few key strokes anyone with access to the Internet could review this highly personal and sensitive information,” the suit said.
“[Network Solutions] holds itself out as one of the oldest, best and most-experienced domain name registration service on the Internet,” the suit continued. “It also claims to be an expert at search engine optimization, security and privacy. It’s business practices, however, do not support (and directly contradict) such claims.”
The suit, filed by Gutride, Safier & Reese at U.S. District Court in San Francisco, demands punitive damages over charges of deceptive trade practices, unjust enrichment and violations of the California Customer Records Act, among other allegations.
Calls to Network Solutions and Gutride Safier went unreturned by post time.