Playboy accused of renting out subscriber data

Playboy Enterprises Inc. has been secretly selling its subscribers’ personal information to data aggregators, according to a new lawsuit.

The information for sale allegedly includes names and addresses, as well as which magazines they subscribe to, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday.

{mosads}The class action suit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Michigan. The plaintiffs, Michigan residents who subscribe to Playboy, said the magazine violated the state’s Preservation of Personal Privacy Act, according to Bloomberg.

The suit alleges that data companies, after receiving the personal information from Playboy, give Playboy even more information about its subscribers which it then sells to political, advertising and nonprofit organizations. Those organizations then market to Playboy’s subscribers based on income, religion, and political affiliation, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs claim Playboy unjustly enriched itself, and they want the magazine to pay back the money, Bloomberg reported.

Playboy declined to comment.