• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 2, 2012

A judge has partially sided with an actress who sued Amazon for allegedly using information from her credit card to discover her true date of birth and append it to her public Internet Movie Database listing.

In a ruling issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle denied Amazon's motion to dismiss the case in its entirety. Pechman ruled that actress Huong "Junie" Hoang could proceed with claims that Amazon allegedly violated IMDb.com's privacy policy, as well as a Washington law protecting consumers.

"Although the subject matter is unique, Plaintiff’s lawsuit is, at core, a straightforward action for breach of contract and violation of consumer protection statutes," Pechman ruled.

The 40-year-old Hoang, who initially filed suit under the pseudonym Jane Doe, says in her complaint that she created a professional profile in Amazon's IMDb.com back in 2003. At the time, she used a stage name and also sliced a few years off her real age. In 2008, Hoang used a credit card issued under her legal name to upgrade to a premium IMDbPro account.

Shortly afterward, her listing on the site allegedly was updated with her true age. She says Amazon must have discovered her true age by using her credit card information to scour public records for data about her.

Hoang alleges that she looks much younger than 40, but can no longer get as much work as she used to because casting agents and producers -- who want to hire younger people -- now know her true age. She also says that she gets rejected for roles that call for 40-year-old actors because she "looks so much younger than her actual age indicates."

Amazon denied in court papers that it discovered the actress's birthdate from information associated with her credit card. But the company also argues that doing so -- and then posting the information -- would have been permissible. "The display of plaintiff's date of birth is not false, misleading, deceptive, immoral or illegal,” Amazon argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The retail giant contended that IMDb.com's privacy policy and terms of use didn't limit its ability to use information disclosed by subscribers, except that the site promised to comply with all applicable laws.

Pechman rejected that position. "These arguments ask the court to go too far," she wrote. "The plain language of the contract does not permit defendants unfettered use of the personal information that plaintiff provided for the purposes of processing payment."

Pechman also pointed out that Amazon promised in its privacy policy to "carefully and sensibly" handle data about users.

The decision wasn't a complete loss for Amazon. The judge granted the company's motion to dismiss a fraud count, as well as a claim that the retail giant violated a Washington state privacy law.