Zynga struck with lawsuit regarding Words with Friends data breach
Estimated 173 million usernames and passwords hacked
March 5th, 2020 - 01:40pm
By Matthew Forde, Deputy Editor
US games developer Zynga has been struck with a class action lawsuit in California regarding the company's data breach in 2019.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the studio is facing a court case surrounding stolen player information across Words with Friends and Draw Something users.
The lawsuit was brought forward by Michigan resident Amy Gitre and a minor from Kansas, represented by his parent Nasim Chaudhri "on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated."
In September last year, the company revealed player account information had been accessed via a cyber-attack. While no financial data was believed to have been accessed, the hackers did obtain entry to an estimated 173 million usernames and passwords.
Player awareness
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Zynga failed to make its players aware of the data breach by only posting a notice to its website, with no emails of notice being sent out to this day.
"Only those users who happened to visit Zynga's website on their own volition, read about the breach in the news, or had signed up to receive email data breach notifications from independent third parties that monitor data breaches were made aware of the breach," reads the lawsuit document.
PocketGamer.biz reached out to Zynga for comment, however the company declined to comment on legal matters.
Zynga meanwhile has announced a new license deal with Portkey Games and Warner Bros. for Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells.
Matthew Forde
Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.
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