Ariana Grande filed a lawsuit against anonymous hackers who she said for years stole, sold and leaked dozens of unreleased songs, video footage and private images obtained through a series of account intrusions and phishing scams.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County, said that some of the hacked materials have been sold on the dark web for significant sums of money or were published on social media platforms and other content transfer systems like WeTransfer and Dropbox.
“Defendants also use multiple accounts specifically designed to mask their identities in order to publish the content they illegally accessed and stole,” the lawsuit said.
No hackers were identified by name, but the singer hopes to use the complaint to “uncover the identities” of the people involved, the court papers said.
Representatives for Ms. Grande declined to comment on the lawsuit on Tuesday.
The filing comes amid a busy time for Ms. Grande. She’s on a world tour, with a spate of sold-out shows in Montreal this week. Her latest studio album, “Petal,” will be released on Friday.
The complaint details digital attacks dating back to 2019, when hackers obtained login credentials to a Dropbox account of a photographer with whom Ms. Grande had previously worked. In that episode, hackers accessed and downloaded unreleased photos.
Then in 2020, cybercriminals hacked their way into the mobile device of a producer on Ms. Grande’s team, downloading unreleased masters, demos and footage from recording sessions, the complaint said. Three years later, hackers struck again, stealing and then leaking 45 unreleased songs.
The suit also detailed two episodes in early 2024, when a digital technician fell victim to phishing scams after hackers created a fake email account and domain name impersonating a photographer. In those incidents, the hackers obtained unreleased photos.
“This malicious invasion of Ms. Grande’s privacy and disruption of her career have caused her substantial and irreparable harm,” the complaint said, adding that no one should have to suffer such violations.
Not only have the hacks caused Ms. Grande reputational harm, the complaint said, they have forced her to use significant resources to investigate the matter, take down materials published without her consent and rerecord songs.
Ms. Grande seeks a trial by jury and court orders demanding the defendants turn over all private materials.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
