• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 4, 2015

Yahoo was hit this week with a new potential class-action lawsuit alleging that it violates Web users' privacy by scanning emails in order to surround them with ads.

This latest case, brought by Highland, Ill. resident Kaylynn Rehberger, alleges that Yahoo's email scans run afoul of the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, which prohibits anyone from surreptitiously intercepting “private electronic communications” without the consent of both the sender and recipient.

The new case comes just days after a federal judge in San Jose, Calif. allowed users to pursue a class-action alleging that Yahoo's email scans violate a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law.

“Plaintiff was unaware of and did not consent to Yahoo’s interception and scanning of her emails to and from Yahoo users,” Rehberger alleges in her complaint, filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. She says that she doesn't have a Yahoo email account herself, but has exchanged email messages with Yahoo account holders.

Rehberger is seeking class-action status on behalf of all Illinois residents who don't have Yahoo email accounts and have exchanged messages with Yahoo email users.

She argues in her complaint that Yahoo doesn't take adequate steps to tell non-account holders about the email scans. The company's terms of service tell account holders that their messages will be scanned for ad-targeting purposes, and directs account holders to tell non-Yahoo users about the scans. Specifically, the terms of service state: “If you ... communicate with non-Yahoo users using the services, you are responsible for notifying those users about this feature.”

Rehberger asserts that this language is a “tacit admission” that Yahoo has not obtained non-users' consent to the scans.

This lawsuit marks at least the second time this year that a large tech company has been accused of violating an Illinois privacy law. In April, Facebook was hit with a class-action complaint alleging that its collection and use of people's “faceprints” violates an Illinois law regarding biometric data. That matter is pending in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.