Ariana Grande has initiated legal action against anonymous hackers, alleging that they obtained unauthorized backdoor access to devices, resulting in the unauthorized release of unreleased songs and footage from recording sessions and music videos.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles and reviewed by Variety, targets a group of unnamed John Does for phishing scams and hacking schemes that have resulted in “unlawful and egregious theft, dissemination, and exploitation of unreleased content.” Grande’s legal team describes a pattern of illegal activity in which hackers compromised the personal digital accounts of photographers and producers who worked closely with her, then sold the data and content for significant sums of money.
Grande is suing unnamed John Does to uncover the identities of these currently unknown and unscrupulous individuals so they can be held accountable for their invasive and reprehensible conduct. The suit asserts that it is imperative for Ms. Grande, on behalf of herself and others, to ensure that such conduct is deterred to the fullest possible extent.
The suit asserts that hundreds of leaks have occurred since Grande’s 2011 music debut. It alleges that in 2019, hackers obtained the login to a Dropbox account belonging to a photographer who had worked with her. The following year, the defendants hacked into a producer’s mobile device who had collaborated with Grande, gaining access to unreleased masters, demos, and footage from recording sessions. In 2023 alone, hackers accessed 45 of her unreleased songs and leaked them.
The suit also alleges that in 2024, hackers created a Gmail account and a domain name impersonating a photographer to persuade a digital technician to send unreleased photos belonging to Grande.
A representative for Grande did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for additional comment.