VIA CERTIFIED MAIL—RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
USAA General Counsel
9800 Fredericksburg Road
San Antonio, TX 78288
Re: Pre-Arbitration Notice of Individual Consumer Privacy Dispute
To Whom It May Concern:
I am sending this Notice of Dispute to notify United Services Automobile Association d/b/a USAA and their corporate affiliates, individually or collectively referred to here as “USAA,” of a dispute regarding my use of USAA.com and USAA’s use of tracking technology on that website, including TikTok-related and Meta/Facebook-related and Meta/Facebook-related tracking technology, code, or related processes, to capture, record, decode, or transmit information about my electronic communications and website interactions without valid prior authorization.
Nature and Basis of the Dispute
I personally used USAA.com while I was physically located in California. I used USAA.com to {typeA161}, or engage in other insurance- or membership, or other financial services-related activity. To the best of my recollection, this occurred on or about the {pleaseComplete} before this Notice.
When I used USAA.com, I understood that I was communicating and interacting with USAA for ordinary informational, insurance, membership, account, or financial-services purposes. I did not know or understand that information associated with my communications and interactions with USAA would be captured, recorded, decoded, transmitted, or otherwise processed through TikTok-related or Meta/Facebook-related tracking technology (“Tracking Tools”) in the manner described below.
Based on my current understanding and counsel’s investigation, USAA caused browser-side pixel and tracking processes to load during website visitors’ sessions and, after loading, to send background communications from visitors’ browsers to TikTok-related and Meta/Facebook-related endpoints through TikTok- and Meta/Facebook-related pixel and tracking technology (collectively, the “Tracking Technology”). Those communications contained or reflected non-content routing, addressing, signaling, source-identifying, event-identifying, browser/device, cookie, and session-related information, including, as applicable: (a)TikTok-transmitted homepage URL/referrer information, a TikTok response associated with the _ttp cookie, pageview and click-related event information, and “Home insurance” click-intent data including link text and a homeowners-insurance quote-redirect destination URL; and (b) Meta/Facebook-transmitted domain-level and event information associated with tested homepage, home-insurance, and join or membership-enrollment page contexts.
Upon information and belief, the Tracking Technology loaded during my USAA.com session(s) as described above and the Tracking Technology reflected information associated with my USAA.com activity, including pages viewed, insurance product or service pages viewed, and quote/referral-related activity, as applicable. This information matters because it was tied to the context and purpose of my USAA.com activity and interactions, not merely to a generic visit to an unrelated webpage. Taken together, these identifiers, event signals, and contextual data points could be used by USAA, TikTok, Meta, and other recipients to profile and link my USAA.com activity to my browser, device, session, approximate location, product/service interests over time.
I contend that this conduct violated Cal. Penal Code § 638.51 because USAA installed, used, or caused the use of a pen register or trap-and-trace device, process, or functionality to capture, record, decode, or transmit non-content routing, addressing, signaling, source-identifying, device-identifying, URL/referrer, domain, pageview, event, click, intent, destination-URL, link-text, cookie, IP-address, user-agent, persistent-identifier, session, or similar information about my electronic communications and activity with USAA.com without first obtaining a court order and without my valid consent or other lawful authorization.
I also preserve related claims and theories under Cal. Penal Code § 631 and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510–2523, to the extent the facts show that USAA or any third party intercepted, read, attempted to read, learned, used, disclosed, or aided the interception or use of the contents or substance of my communications with USAA.com without valid consent, including to the extent the transmitted click, intent, destination-URL, link-text, page-context, or event-context data is determined to reflect the contents or substance of my communications or interactions with USAA.com. I do not waive any other statutory, common-law, contract, privacy-policy, consumer-protection, equitable, or related theory that may be supported by the facts and law.
I did not knowingly authorize USAA to use, enable, or cause the operation of TikTok-related or Meta/Facebook-related tracking technology to capture, record, decode, transmit, or otherwise process my data in the manner described above. To the extent USAA contends that its terms, privacy policy, or other disclosures provided authorization for the challenged conduct, I dispute that contention. More specifically, I dispute that generalized disclosures concerning cookies, pixels, analytics, advertising, service providers, targeted advertising, cross-context behavioral advertising, website measurement, data sharing, or similar practices provided clear, prior, specific, informed, and valid authorization for the challenged tracking activity described in this Notice. I am not aware of any court order, judicial authorization, statutory authorization, or other lawful authority permitting USAA, TikTok, Meta/Facebook, or any other entity to install, use, or operate the challenged Tracking Technology in connection with my communications and interactions with USAA.com.
Relief Sought
I seek all relief available under applicable law and any applicable agreement, including statutory damages where available; restitutionary relief and disgorgement; injunctive and equitable relief requiring USAA to cease the challenged tracking practices unless and until it obtains valid consent and complies with applicable law; deletion, non-use, or de-identification of data derived from the challenged tracking practices; preservation and disclosure of records; attorneys’ fees, arbitration fees, costs, and any additional relief available under law, contract, arbitration rules, or equity.
My current good-faith demand is $5,000, subject to supplementation after USAA provides records sufficient to evaluate the full amount of statutory, actual, equitable, and other relief owed. Because the number, timing, nature, and scope of any violations depend on records presently within USAA’s possession, custody, or control, as well as records maintained by third-party vendors and service providers, I reserve the right to supplement my damages calculation and requested relief after those records become available.
I request that USAA preserve all records and ESI relating to this dispute, including data, logs, code, configurations, communications, contracts, and materials in USAA’s possession, custody, or control or reasonably accessible through its vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents. USAA should suspend any routine deletion, overwriting, rotation, or destruction process that could affect records relevant to my interactions, the challenged tracking, the data collected or transmitted, relief, or resolution. I authorize USAA to communicate with my counsel identified below regarding this dispute and to produce to them all records and information concerning my account or associated with my use of USAA.com that are reasonably necessary to evaluate and resolve this dispute.
Informal Resolution
I am providing this Notice in good faith before initiating formal proceedings in order to afford USAA an opportunity to discuss an informal resolution of my dispute. Please confirm receipt of this Notice and contact my counsel within 30 business days. If USAA believes that additional information is required to evaluate or resolve this dispute, please identify the specific information requested and the contractual or legal basis for the request.
Without conceding that any 60-day or other waiting period is contractually required, enforceable, or necessary to satisfy any condition precedent, I am willing to allow 60 days after USAA receives this Notice for informal resolution discussions. If the dispute is not resolved within that period, I intend to pursue my rights in any available forum and through any available procedure, including through individual arbitration. In doing so, I expressly reserve all arguments and objections to the validity, enforceability, applicability, interpretation, effect, or satisfaction of any USAA arbitration, waiver, limitation, forum, governing-law, mass-arbitration, public-injunction, unilateral-modification, informal-resolution, condition-precedent, or dispute-resolution provision, including objections concerning formation, assent, notice, scope, delegation, unconscionability, waiver, fees, costs, limitations periods, venue, arbitral rules, public injunctive relief, representative relief, and consistency with applicable law. I also reject, and do not consent to, any unilateral modification of USAA’s Online Agreement, Cookie Notice, Site Terms, or any other purportedly applicable terms unless I affirmatively agree in a separate signed writing.
This Notice is not a complete statement of all facts, claims, legal theories, damages, remedies, defenses, objections, responses, or grounds. I reserve the right to amend, supplement, refine, narrow, expand, or otherwise modify this Notice and my requested relief based upon additional investigation, records, technical analysis, discovery, expert review, arbitration proceedings, litigation proceedings, or other information.
Please direct all communications concerning this dispute to my counsel identified below.
Sincerely,