Actress sues IMDB and Amazon.com for revealing her true age

**Cali** · October 17th, 2011, 03:04 PM

Found this on Gawker-
An unnamed actress is suing IMDb for $1,075,000 for revealing her "real age."

The suit, filed in Seattle and against IMDb parent company Amazon, is a "Jane Doe" complaint in which the "Texas actress" argues that IMDb is hurting her career:

The actress, who uses an Americanized stage name to avoid the "cultural disadvantage" of her real Asian name, says that the credit-card interception is the only way the company could have learned her real age. She says IMDb refuses to remove her birth date from her profile and that she has since lost work because "lesser-known 40-year-old actresses are not in demand in the movie business."

Hmm. My first instinct was Bai Ling, but she never changed her name. Tila Tequila was raised in Texas, but isn't old enough. Grace Park changed her name and is 37, but no tie to Texas. Tia Carrere is 44, changed her name, and I briefly thought she was living in Austin, but turns it's just a band called "Tia Carrera." Maggie Q is only 32. I don't think Kelly Hu is from Texas. Kind of at a loss, here.

With some googling, I found one little-known Asian Texan who altered her name for American audiences and currently has no age listed on IMDb, but it's kind of a shot in the dark, so who knows? Place your bets in the comments. And I guess if you have feelings about internet privacy and whatever, you can talk about that, too.
Which Actress Is Suing IMDb for Revealing Her Age?

The original source:
It’s no secret that Hollywood can be cruel to aging talent. Now, a 40-year-old Texas actress who lost acting gigs is taking Amazon to court, saying the company used confidential credit-card details to publish her real age in its online movie database.

In a “Jane Doe” complaint filed in Seattle federal court, the actress says that Amazon added her birth date to her professional profile on its Internet Movie Database, a popular site for movie buffs and those in the film industry. The actress claims that she did not list her age on her profile but that IMDb, which is wholly owned by Amazon, added it all the same. She claims the company discovered her age by intercepting her credit-card information without permission when she purchased an “industry insider” upgrade in the hopes of getting more work.

The actress, who uses an Americanized stage name to avoid the “cultural disadvantage” of her real Asian name, says that the credit-card interception is the only way the company could have learned her real age. She says IMDb refuses to remove her birth date from her profile and that she has since lost work because “lesser-known 40-year-old actresses are not in demand in the movie business.”

The actress says that Amazon’s conduct amounts to fraud and breach of contract in light of an IMDb subscriber agreement that promises credit-card information will be encrypted and that Amazon will handle personal information “carefully and sensibly.” The lawsuit, which seeks $75,000 plus $1 million in punitive damages, also says Amazon breached the state of Washington’s privacy and consumer protection laws.

This is not the first time that Amazon has been sued for allegedly revealing personal details about an actress. Eriko Tamuro, a Los Angeles woman was once a Britney Spears-like teen idol in Tokyo, settled a lawsuit with IMDb in 2007 after the site posted her real name and birth date.

Amazon’s privacy practices have come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks since the company launched the Kindle Fire, a tablet device that uses a new type of data-storing browser that makes it quicker for consumers to surf websites and shop online. Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) last week sent an open letter to Amazon’s CEO comparing the tablet to Orwell’s Big Brother and requesting information about the company’s plans to safeguard consumer information.
Amazon did not immediately return a request for comment about the lawsuit, which was first reported via Twitter by law professor Eric Goldman.
Doe v Amazon Complaint
Actress Sues Amazon For Publishing Her Age | paidContent

**faithanne** · October 17th, 2011, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by Cali

She claims the company discovered her age by intercepting her credit-card information without permission when she purchased an “industry insider” upgrade in the hopes of getting more work.

It doesn't exactly sound like she'd be a huge star, or even anyone we've ever heard of, if she has to resort to upgrading her IMDB account to get work.

**olivia** · October 17th, 2011, 03:22 PM

Who's that one whose parents where brother and sister (adopted) of a missionary family? Her mother was adopted from Korea, I think, and the actress doesn't even look Asian much.

Probably too young, this is a toughie.

**faithanne** · October 17th, 2011, 03:25 PM

^Lindsay Price? Must go check her out.

ETA: According to IMDB (!) she's 34 and born in California.

**OrangeSlice** · October 17th, 2011, 04:21 PM

What an idiot. I thought birth date was public knowledge? I hope the judge tosses her and her lawsuit out on her ass. How can someone get in trouble for publishing the truth?

**faithanne** · October 17th, 2011, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by OrangeSlice

What an idiot. I thought birth date was public knowledge? I hope the judge tosses her and her lawsuit out on her ass. How can someone get in trouble for publishing the truth?

I think it's because they got it through her private credit card information, not from the bio she gave them to publish.

**OrangeSlice** · October 17th, 2011, 04:31 PM

Well, she's only guessing that's how they got it. I'd wager there's tons of ways to get someone's real birthdate. Plus, there are tons of people that can add things to an IMDB profile with very little checking for accuracy.

**yanna** · October 18th, 2011, 12:11 AM

Grace Park is 37?! WTF?

**pookie207** · October 18th, 2011, 01:01 PM

Hah! How can this not be bogus? Who believes the bs on IMBD anyways? I've seen a lot of incorrect information on there that made me say, wtf?

I went to high school with an actress. Not a big star but she has had a lot of character work in the movies and one big starring roll. She was a year older than me and a grade ahead of me. A womens magazine interviewed her many years ago and she gave her age as 30. At the time I was 34 which would have made her real age, 35. So anytime I read about the age of an actress, I automatically add 5 years.

**Angeli** · October 18th, 2011, 02:18 PM

Tila Tequila is "old enough" if she's a lot older than she's claiming to be. If she's pushing 40 instead of pushing 30, then her career opportunities really would be more limited than if she's perceived as much younger.

**pookie207** · October 18th, 2011, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by Angeli

Tila Tequila is "old enough" if she's a lot older than she's claiming to be. If she's pushing 40 instead of pushing 30, then her career opportunities really would be more limited than if she's perceived as much younger.

Doesn't seem like she does much work as actress other than being Tila Tequila.

**dksnj** · October 18th, 2011, 04:03 PM

How about Lucy Liu?

**Cali** · October 18th, 2011, 11:26 PM

Originally Posted by pookie207

Hah! How can this not be bogus? Who believes the bs on IMBD anyways? I've seen a lot of incorrect information on there that made me say, wtf?

I went to high school with an actress. Not a big star but she has had a lot of character work in the movies and one big starring roll. She was a year older than me and a grade ahead of me. A womens magazine interviewed her many years ago and she gave her age as 30. At the time I was 34 which would have made her real age, 35. So anytime I read about the age of an actress, I automatically add 5 years.

Maybe the actress you knew didn't upgrade to a paid IMDB account?

That upgrading-to-paid and providing additional info is at the heart of this actress' argument. She says that she bought the PAID IMDB account, and then had to provide various account info, and she alleges that only AFER that did IMDB use that info to populate her page. I'm imagining something along the lines of an automatic field-filler thing or something?

Its actually a kind of interesting legal case- I could see it having ramifications in other areas if she wins.

And it isn't bogus AFAIK- on the site I linked to, you can download the actual court filings to read.

But taking off my nerdy legal hat, and putting on my silly gossip hat.. I totally want to know who filed this. Very interesting.

**pookie207** · October 19th, 2011, 07:26 AM

I know what you're saying, that they took advantage of information she provided, however, wonder why she didn't give her fake birthday that she's been going by? When these forms ask for dob, you can put anything in and it's not going to reject it. Now I could understand if it was for banking or medical information having to give your real birthdate and they let the information out of her true birthdate.

Any job I have ever gotten required a social security number, so wouldn't people hiring her for acting jobs be able to find our her real age anyways?

**MohandasKGanja** · October 19th, 2011, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by pookie207

Any job I have ever gotten required a social security number, so wouldn't people hiring her for acting jobs be able to find our her real age anyways?

The people who cast her and direct her wouldn't necessarily have access to her social security number - only people deep within the accounting department.