Earlier last month, an anonymous actress filed a million dollar lawsuit against the IMDb (“Internet Movie Database”) website claiming that the database violated her constitutional right to privacy by accessing and providing personal information, specifically her age.

It may come as no surprise that the entertainment industry is taking the recent lawsuit very seriously and has been in talks with IMDb regarding its practice of publishing sensitive information without the actor or actress’ permission. For some time now, IMDb has been publishing the ages of various actors and actresses and has been refusing to delete or change the published information even when asked to do so by the actor or actress involved.

The Screen Actors Guild (“SAG”) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (“AFTRA”) have been in talks with IMDb regarding its longstanding policy. Unfortunately, a recent press release indicates that IMDb and its parent company Amazon.com stand firm on their position and will continue to publish ages of actors and actresses without permission and despite direct requests by actors and actresses to delete or change the content already published.

Despite the anonymous actress’ lawsuit filed earlier this month, SAG and AFTRA make clear that IMDb and Amazon.com’s obligations here go beyond just legal obligations. Rather, the guilds state that they “strongly believe that businesses like IMDb have a moral and legal obligation not to facilitate age discrimination in employment.” This is because those in the entertainment industry looking to cast actors and actresses would never directly ask the actor or actress her age, but this information is now routinely accessed through IMDb’s website.

The guilds express concern over the fact that the ages of actors and actresses, which are routinely revealed by IMDb, will negatively affect the actors or actress’ ability to procure employment in Hollywood, where ageism prevails, and explicitly states that “[a]n actor’s actual age is irrelevant to casting…What matters is the age range that an actor can portray. For the entire history of professional acting, this has been true but that reality has been upended by the development of IMDb as an industry standard used in casting offices across America.”

I think Amazon.com may want to sideline its legal department and check with its own human resources department. They may quickly discover that asking an employee their age is a no-no, not because it is against the rules, but because it is a red flag to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which means extra scrutiny in lawsuits for employers and prospective employers.