Amazon secretly tracked consumers through their cellphones, lawsuit alleges

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Ever feel like your phone is listening to you? Like when you talk about something aloud, and suddenly your web browser serves you ads for what you were talking about?

Well, a lawsuit filed Wednesday against Amazon alleges the e-commerce giant has been using consumers phones to get information about them. While the class action suit filed in a San Francisco district court doesn't exactly allege Amazon is using phones to listen to them, it does accuse the company of using phones to track people.

The lawsuit, according to Reuters, alleges Amazon did this through Amazon Ads SDK, code provided to app developers that was then embedded in their apps. By gaining "backdoor access" to people's phones, Amazon was allegedly able to collect timestamped geolocation data about where consumers live, work, shop and visit.

This data allegedly included sensitive information like religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and health issues.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Felix Kolotinsky of San Mateo, accuses Amazon of using phones to track consumers' movements and then selling the data it collects. The lawsuit is seeking $5 billion in damages