Security News > 2021 > March > Intel accused of wiretapping because it uses analytics to track keystrokes, mouse movements on its website

Intel is among the growing list of companies being sued for allegedly violating American wiretapping laws by running third-party code to track interactions, such as keystrokes, click events, and cursor movements, on its website.

The plaintiff, Holly Londers, claims she visited Intel's website approximately a dozen times in the twelve months to January 2021, and during those visits the chip maker "Utilized tracking, recording, and/or 'session replay' software to contemporaneously intercept [her] use and interaction with the website, including mouse clicks and movements," and information that she input, pages visited and viewed, and dates and times of visits.

Londers's complaint does not specify the session replay software involved but The Register understands from a conversation with one of the attorneys involved that it's believed to be Clicktale, which was acquired in 2019 by Contentsquare, a maker of similar analytics software.

Non-profit org The Markup's Blacklight web inspector warns that the Intel website contains a Clicktale script with "a session recorder, which tracks user mouse movement, clicks, taps, scrolls, or even network activity." The privacy scanner further notes that no keystroke logging was detected and that it cannot say how the session data is being used.

Session replay scripts, Acar said, are no worse than any other analytics scripts until it comes to web input forms.

The Register asked Intel and Contentsquare to comment on the wiretapping lawsuit, and both companies declined.

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