First American sued by homeowners over its property database

Consumers are suing another real estate giant over its technology platform, accusing a title insurance leader of exploiting their personal and property records without their consent. 

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Four residents filed a class action complaint against First American Financial in a California federal court this week, for violating various state consumer laws. The suit focuses on the DataTree product, which allows users to access various levels of homeowners’ information, including mortgage data, for both free and paid subscribers. 

First American describes DataTree as a nationwide property-intelligence platform, which includes, among other information, a home’s lien and tax data, and foreclosure status. The lawsuit claims DataTree also allows users to access homeowners’ telephone numbers and email addresses through affiliated 

The company offers a free 7-day trial and subscription plan, in which users can perform searches using credits. The plaintiffs say they never consented to their data, however public, to be used for sales purposes. 

“First American used plaintiffs’ and class members’ names and identity attributes in a commercial sales funnel, not merely as a passive, noncommercial republication of public information,” the lawsuit reads. 

An attorney for the plaintiffs declined to comment Friday, while a spokesperson for First American didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Homeowners, who attached redacted screenshots of their property profiles on DataTree, accuse First American of violating right of publicity laws in Alabama, California, Illinois, and Nevada. They’re seeking to certify various classes of members who were identified in DataTree between 1 and 4 years prior to the suit. 

Another technology lawsuit

Consumers in the past year have increasingly sued mortgage players over the way they handle customer-related information, even beyond data breach complaints. 

Both Rocket Cos. and United Wholesale Mortgage were hit in the past year with similar complaints accusing them of selling applicants’ financial data to third parties via secret trackers on their websites. The claims against UWM were dismissed earlier this year, while the case against Rocket remains pending. 

Optimal Blue and dozens of lenders meanwhile are fending off an antitrust class action regarding the vendor’s ubiquitous tools. Plaintiffs have accused the mortgage companies of conspiring to raise rates and fees for all home buyers via their shared pricing data.