Poland woman files invasion of privacy suit over hacked home cameras

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Poland woman has filed suit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court claiming her privacy has been invaded because someone hacked into video monitoring of her home and viewed her breast-feeding her child in the child’s bedroom.

Atty. David Betras filed the suit Thursday on behalf of Jocelyn Pannunzio. She is asking for punitive and compensatory damages in excess of $50,000 as well as an injunction forcing whoever hacked into her video system to destroy any images they may have captured.

The suit names 20 John Does as defendants.

The suit says Pannunzio installed the system in her home last year, and she is able to view her home through the system when she is not home. The suit says that at some point, someone was able to remotely access the system and view her in her child’s room without her permission and record those images.

The suit does not say how Pannunzio was able to determine someone had access to her video system, but she hired a computer professional who traced the unauthorized access to her system back to a specific system, according to the suit.

The Internet provider, Charter Communications, however, said it did not want to disclose the information without a court order because of federal privacy laws. The suit said the company indicated it would comply with a court order — and Betras also filed a petition with the lawsuit asking for a court order to be provided with the person who owns that internet address.

Pannunzio is suing for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and electronic eavesdropping.