Three California residents have sued nine technology and media companies for allegedly tracking their online activities without their consent using an HTML5 feature.

Lawyers of Charlie Aughenbaugh, Tony Weber and Brooke Stafford filed the civil complaint before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Sept. 15 in what could be a case of invasion of privacy. Named defendants were Ringleader Digital Inc., CNN Inc., Surfline/Wavetrak Inc., Whitepages.com Inc., Travel Channel LLC, Accuweather Inc., Go2 Media Inc., Merriam-Webster Inc. and Medialets Inc.

The complainants alleged that Ringleader Digital's Media Stamp, the mobile equivalent of an online cookie, is used on the mobile websites of the other co-defendants to secretly identify a visitor to those sites by assigning a unique ID number to his or her handheld device.

The HTML5 software that runs mobile browsers then creates a database on the device so that whenever the device is used to surf the Internet, the corresponding cookie automatically tells Ringleader the websites visited. Based on the information, users of the Media Stamp or the co-defendants can tailor fit an online ad for that device's user.

Bob Walczak Jr., Ringleader's chief executive, issued a statement saying it did not want to deny users control of its mobile advertising platform. The statement said Ringleader Digital is developing ways for consumers to know that they are not being monitored through cookies.