The class action claims DesignerWare LLC made software that a rent-to-own business used to spy on customers. The program was installed in the rented computers of Aaron’s Inc., which then secretly monitored customers’ keystrokes and screen shots and surreptitiously took pictures of them with webcams, the suit claims.

The plaintiffs claim DesignerWare and Aaron’s broke federal wiretapping, privacy and consumer-protection laws by spying on them and at least 50,000 other customers.

DesignerWare makes PC Rental Agent, which, according to the suit, permitted Aaron’s “to remotely gather, transmit and store private electronic information and communications from … customers, including but not limited to photographs, screen shots and keystrokes.”

The plaintiffs reported their concerns to local law enforcement, the suit said. Investigators discovered the secretly recorded data was sent from Aaron’s rented computers “to a central server operated by DesignerWare located in Pennsylvania where the data was then made available to Aaron’s … throughout the country,” according to the suit.