Mealey's Data Privacy : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Data Privacy

January 10, 2024
Plaintiffs Amend Claims Accusing Google Of Data ‘Theft’ To Train AI Chatbot

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of previously anonymous putative class action plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in California federal court identifying themselves as a New York Times bestselling author and several users of Google LLC services, all now accusing Google of “data theft” and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), copyright laws and other statutes by using their data to train its artificial intelligence chatbot known as “Bard.”
January 09, 2024
23andMe Faces Potential MDL After Breach Of 6.9M Customers’ Data

SAN FRANCISCO — Two consumers filed a complaint in California federal court accusing 23andMe Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after the genetic testing company revealed that ancestral records for roughly 6.9 million customers were hacked and being sold online. The breach is the subject of more than 30 lawsuits that the company is asking the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) to consolidate.
January 08, 2024
Supreme Court Won’t Hear X’s Challenge To Gag Order Over Government Surveillance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a denial of its petition for certiorari on Jan. 8, X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) lost its bid to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider its assertion that not being permitted to publicize its compelled involvement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s domestic surveillance program violated its First Amendment rights.
January 03, 2024
Google Browsing History Data Suit Stayed While Settlement Is Finalized

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Two days after Google LLC and the plaintiffs suing it for the surreptitious interception and collection of their internet browsing history jointly filed notice of a preliminary settlement of privacy and unfair competition claims, a California federal judge granted the parties’ request to stay the case and vacate a pending trial date while they finalize the agreement.
January 03, 2024
Federal Judge: No Jurisdiction Over Class Wiretapping Claims Against Website

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland granted dismissal of a putative class complaint accusing a website of wiretapping visitors’ electronic communications in violation of Maryland’s statutory and common law, finding that the Mayland woman who brought the complaint failed to show that she suffered a concrete injury or that any of the alleged violations exposed her to an increased risk of identity theft.
December 21, 2023
Mortgagors Suing Over Data Theft May Seek Only Declaratory, Injunctive Relief

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida largely granted a motion to dismiss by loan servicers whose data was accessed and personally identifiable information (PII) was stolen, permitting the mortgagors to proceed only with their final claim for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief.
December 21, 2023
Class Member’s Estate Appeals Attorney Fees Award In T-Mobile Data Breach Suit

ST. LOUIS — Calling an attorney fees award of $78.75 million “preposterously high” for a multidistrict litigation that “lasted less than seven months from filing to settlement,” the estate of a class member who objected to the settlement in the suit over a data breach experienced by T-Mobile US Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. (T-Mobile, collectively), urges the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to adopt the “megafund rule” and a lower lodestar multiplier.
December 21, 2023
On Remand, YouTube Again Seeks Dismissal Of ‘Fatally Flawed’ Kids Privacy Claims

SAN JOSE, Calif. — On remand to California federal court after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected preemption defenses raised by YouTube LLC and Google LLC in response to putative class claims of privacy violations for the purported collection of minors’ personally identifiable information (PII), the defendants moved to dismiss the minor plaintiffs’ fourth amended complaint (FAC) for failure to state a claim.
December 20, 2023
Utah High Court Finds Providing Phone Password Implicates 5th Amendment

SALT LAKE CITY — A suspect’s verbal provision of a password to unlock an encrypted cell phone is a testimonial communication and, therefore, testimony at trial about the suspect’s refusal to provide a password violated his privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Utah Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appeals court’s reversal of a connection based on such testimony.
December 20, 2023
FTC Seeks Dismissal Of Meta’s Constitutional Challenges To Its Authority, Actions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Allegations of unconstitutionality in a declaratory complaint and an accompanying preliminary injunction motion filed by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) are not legally viable, the Federal Trade Commission says in a combined dismissal motion and opposition to the injunction motion in District of Columbia federal court.
December 19, 2023
Class Complaint Accuses Urban Outfitters Of Embedding Trackers In Its Emails

PHILADELPHIA — Urban Outfitters Inc. (UO) violates Arizona law by embedding trackers in its email that record, without consent, if and when marketing emails are opened, an Arizona woman alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.
December 19, 2023
DOJ To High Court: No 1st Amendment Violation In Barring X Corp.’s Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A gag order preventing X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) from disclosing certain information regarding its compliance with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance program complied with strict scrutiny and did not violate the company’s rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a brief opposing the social network operator’s petition for certiorari filed on behalf of the federal government.
December 15, 2023
Year-Old Class Certification Ruling Filed In Google Assistant Privacy Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Issuing the redacted version of a class certification ruling almost exactly a year after she partly granted the plaintiffs’ certification motion in a consolidated privacy class action over purported eavesdropping by Google LLC’s digital assistant, a California federal judge filed an accompanying order explaining that the delay was due to a clerical error.
December 15, 2023
Court ‘Wrongly Expanded’ Electronic Data Exclusion, Home Depot Tells 6th Circuit

CINCINNATI — Home Depot Inc. filed an appellant brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging an Ohio federal court’s finding that a commercial general liability insurance policy’s electronic data exclusion bars coverage for the retailer’s losses stemming from a 2014 data breach, arguing that the lower court “wrongly expanded the narrow electronic-data exclusion beyond its natural meaning, based on assumed facts outside the record.”
December 13, 2023
9th Circuit Stays Issuance Of Mandate As Facebook Preps Bid For Certiorari

SAN FRANCISCO — After denying a bid from the former Facebook Inc. and certain of its executives for rehearing, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion to stay its mandate as Facebook prepares to file a petition for a writ of certiorari to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the Ninth Circuit’s partial revival of a complaint filed by investors accusing Facebook of making misleading statements about data privacy.
December 13, 2023
Parties In Fingerprint Putative Class Suit Against Employer Announce Dismissal

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An employer accused in a federal court in Illinois of violating that state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing employees’ fingerprints and the son of a deceased employee who brought a putative class complaint filed a joint stipulation of dismissal.
December 06, 2023
9th Circuit Rejects Facebook Bid For Rehearing After Revival Of Investors’ Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A split panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel and en banc rehearing from the former Facebook Inc. and certain of its executives after the panel revived some of the claims made by investors in a suit against the company alleging that it misled investors about privacy and data protection, finding that the investors had adequately pleaded that news about Cambridge Analytica and a practice known as “whitelisting” had contributed to two stock drops in 2018.
December 06, 2023
COMMENTARY: The Seventh Circuit Affirms Landmark BIPA Decision In Illinois

By J. Andrew Moss and Jalen Brown
December 04, 2023
Judge Revives Marriott Data Breach Classes, Criticizes Class Action Waiver

GREENBELT, Md. — Almost four months after the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a class certification ruling in the multidistrict litigation over the massive data breach experienced by Marriott International Inc., a Maryland federal judge reinstated the certified classes, finding that Marriott forfeited the ability to invoke a class action waiver signed by each of the individual plaintiffs.
November 30, 2023
9th Circuit: Class Suit Against Shopify Failed To Show Personal Jurisdiction

SAN FRANCISCO — A putative class complaint accusing a payment processor of violating California privacy and unfair competition laws by concealing that it was collecting, storing and sharing consumers’ personal information failed to establish the trial court’s specific personal jurisdiction over the processor, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming dismissal.
November 27, 2023
Ohio Man’s ‘Legally Frivolous’ Privacy Suit Over Meta Data Sharing Dismissed

CINCINNATI — Adopting a magistrate’s recommendation to dismiss, an Ohio federal judge found that a pro se plaintiff’s “meager allegations” against Meta Platforms Inc. over the 2015 Cambridge Analytica data-sharing incident were insufficient to state a claim against the Facebook operator or the British analytics firm.
November 20, 2023
Louisiana High Court Refuses To Review Ruling In Suit Alleging Insured Stole Files

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court refused to disturb a Louisiana appeals court’s finding that a residential mortgage broker’s electronic loan files are “tangible” under state law and, therefore, can be defined as “‘property’ that is susceptible to ‘loss of use’” under a competitor’s business liability insurance policy, allowing to stand the lower court’s reversal of a summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer that intervened in the broker’s lawsuit alleging that its insured used stolen files to broker mortgage loans for its customers.
November 20, 2023
Dismissal, Protective Order Denied In WhatsApp, NSO Spyware Suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — An Israeli spyware firm saw two of its motions denied by a California federal judge in a computer fraud suit brought against it by WhatsApp Inc., as she denied a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens and declined to issue a protective order barring much of the discovery sought by the plaintiff.
November 17, 2023
Meta Again Seeks Dismissal Of Privacy, Trespass Claims In Consolidated Pixel Row

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months after Meta Platforms Inc. partly prevailed in a motion to dismiss a consolidated lawsuit over purported data-sharing violations associated with its Pixel product, the tech giant filed a renewed dismissal motion in which it asserts that the plaintiffs did not cure the deficiencies identified by a California federal judge in the previous ruling and “fail to identify any ‘specific, personal or private information they conveyed to their healthcare providers that they reasonably believe Meta received.’”
November 14, 2023
Judge: South Carolina Woman Sufficiently Alleged Data Breach Notice Wasn’t Timely

CHICAGO — Although mostly granting a motion to dismiss putative class claims against a digital marketing firm related to a 2022 data breach, an Illinois federal judge held that one of the plaintiffs whose sensitive personal information (SPI) was exposed in the breach adequately alleged violation of a South Carolina data breach notification law.