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

Mealey's Data Privacy

November 10, 2023
2 Facebook Users Appeal Final Approval Of $725M Profile-Sharing Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — One month after a California federal judge granted final approval to the $725 million settlement agreement with Meta Platforms Inc. in the consolidated privacy class action over the sharing of Facebook users’ profiles with Cambridge Analytica, two of the social network’s users, who had objected to the settlement, filed a notice on Nov. 9 that they are appealing the approval ruling to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
November 07, 2023
Magistrate Agrees To Seal Sanctions Hearing In Meta Privacy Consolidated Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The California federal magistrate judge overseeing discovery matters in the putative consolidated class action over the alleged sharing of protected health information (PHI) by Meta Platforms Inc. on Nov. 6 provisionally granted the technology firm’s unopposed motion to seal the hearing over whether it should be subject to sanctions for purportedly not providing complete responses to the plaintiffs’ requests for production (RFPs).
November 07, 2023
3rd Circuit Vacates, Remands Attorney Fees Award In Wawa Data Breach Settlement

PHILADELPHIA — Siding with the lone objector to a settlement of negligence and privacy claims between Wawa Inc. and a class of consumers over a 2019 data breach experienced by the convenience store chain, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a precedential opinion vacated a $3 million attorney fees award, finding that the trial court did not fully consider all the relevant factors when deeming the award reasonable.
November 06, 2023
1st Amendment, Civil Liberties Amici Back X’s Certiorari Bid Over FBI Surveillance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Arizona State University (ASU) College of Law First Amendment Clinic filed amicus curiae briefs supporting X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) in its petition for certiorari in which it challenges the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s gag order preventing the social media platform from speaking about its compliance with national security letters (NSLs) they were served with as part of the U.S. government’s domestic surveillance program.
November 02, 2023
9th Circuit: Privacy Claim Over Ford’s Text Collection Fails For Lack Of Injury

SEATTLE — Affirming the dismissal of a putative privacy claim against Ford Motor Co., a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently plead an injury under the Washington Privacy Act (WPA) from the purported collection and retention of text messages in vehicles’ on-board memory because they did not claim that the automaker ever accessed the retained messages.
November 02, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Vizio’s 4th Amended Complaint On Other Grounds

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of Vizio Inc.’s fourth amended complaint seeking coverage for an underlying $17 million settlement and defense costs arising from class claims alleging unauthorized collections of consumers’ television viewing data, finding that Vizio breached the insurance policy by not soliciting the excess insurer’s consent before settling the underlying lawsuit.
November 01, 2023
Employer Seeks Coverage For Class Action Suit Alleging BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — An employer sued its insurer in an Illinois federal court seeking commercial general liability and umbrella insurance coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by disseminating electronic information derived from the scanning of its employees’ biometric identifiers to third parties without their consent.
November 01, 2023
Judge Gives Initial OK To $62 Million Settlement Of Google Location History Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Following a hearing on a preliminary approval motion filed by the plaintiffs in a class action over Google Inc.’s practice of tracking users’ locations without consent, a California federal judge gave an initial thumbs-up to a proposed $62 million settlement of privacy and intrusion claims against the technology giant.
October 26, 2023
Cy Pres Firms Proposed In $62M Settlement Of Google Location History Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A month after moving for preliminary approval of a proposed $62 million settlement of location-tracking privacy class claims against Google Inc., the named plaintiffs filed a supplemental brief in California federal court enumerating 17 potential cy pres recipients of much of that fund.
October 26, 2023
Judge Allows Invasion Of Privacy Claim For Retailer’s Recording Of Customer Chats

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge refused to dismiss one count for invasion of privacy but dismissed the remainder of a consumer’s putative class claims against a retailer, including for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), based on the retailer using a third-party company to intercept, duplicate and analyze online chats on the retailer’s website between customers and company representatives.
October 26, 2023
Investors’ Suit Alleging Facebook Lied About User Data Partially Revived

SAN FRANCISCO — A split panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived some of the claims made by investors in a suit against the former Facebook Inc. alleging that the company 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.
October 25, 2023
COMMENTARY: Neurotechnology In The Workplace: A Futuristic Reality

By Jeremy Ben Merkelson, Wendy Kearns, Michael Borgia and Tanner Harris
October 25, 2023
Judge: Discovery Sought In Remanded WhatsApp Spyware Dispute Is Premature

OAKLAND, Calif. — In light of a pending dismissal motion and a lack of reciprocal discovery responses, a California federal judge on Oct. 24 denied an Israeli spyware firm’s request that WhatsApp Inc. be required to serve amended responses to its requests for admission (RFAs) in a lawsuit over alleged computer fraud.
October 25, 2023
Massachusetts Centralization Of MOVEit Data Breach Suits Confirmed By JPMDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation confirmed its decision to consolidate dozens of lawsuits related to breaches of the MOVEit app in Massachusetts federal court, finding that the actions “involve questions of fact that are common to the” suits.
October 20, 2023
Judge Denies Injunction In UCL Health Care Data Case Against Google

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Plaintiffs’ privacy and California unfair competition law (UCL) claims appear to turn on whether Google LLC simply acquires health information as a vendor or actually uses that data in some fashion, a federal judge said while concluding that the balance of hardships weighs against granting a motion for a preliminary injunction. In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Google’s own artificial intelligence suggested that Google’s collection of health data might run afoul of various laws.
October 20, 2023
Dollar General Will Pay $1M To Settle EEOC Disability Bias, GINA Lawsuit

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A variety store chain will pay $1 million and provide other relief to settle a case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a federal court in Alabama alleging that its hiring practices violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), the EEOC announced Oct. 20.
October 19, 2023
Google: UCL Plaintiffs Can’t Show Violations, Injury In Bard AI Chatbot Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Class action plaintiffs who complain that Google LLC trained artificial intelligence chatbot Bard on personal and copyrighted information trade “prolixity for precision,” fail to allege a privacy or property interest in material publicly posted on the internet and lack sufficient allegations that they read a privacy policy or can demonstrate an underlying statutory violation, the company says in a motion to dismiss unfair competition law (UCL), copyright and other claims filed in a California federal court.
October 19, 2023
$23 Million Google Referrer Header Privacy Suit Settlement Gets Final OK

SAN JOSE, Calif. — More than eight years after approving an initial $8.5 million settlement with Google LLC in a consolidated privacy class action that subsequently went to the U.S. Supreme Court and back, a California federal judge granted final approval to a revised settlement, now valued at $23 million, of claims over alleged data-sharing by the referrer headers associated with Google’s search engine.
October 17, 2023
Class Suit Accuses Medical Lab Of Disclosing Customers’ Data To Debt Collector

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California man filed a putative class complaint in a California court against a medical laboratory and a revenue services operator alleging that they unlawfully disclose customers’ sensitive medical data to debt collectors in violation of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA).
October 17, 2023
Credit Unions’ $28.5 Million Settlement Of Wawa Data Suit Preliminarily Approved

PHILADELPHIA — A year and a half after a Pennsylvania federal judge granted final approval to the consumer track in a consolidated class action over a 2019 data breach experienced by Wawa Inc., the judge granted a motion to preliminarily approve a proposed settlement between the convenience store chain and a track comprising financial institutions (FIs).
October 17, 2023
Tesla Owner, Minor Son Ordered To Arbitrate Claims Over Vehicle Video Access

SAN FRANCISCO — A Tesla Inc. customer and his minor son who filed a class complaint accusing the company of permitting employees to access, use and share video recordings and images of customers captured by vehicle cameras without customers’ consent must arbitrate their claims, a federal magistrate judge in California ruled, finding in part “that under the principles of equitable estoppel,” the son must abide by the agreement to which his father agreed.
October 17, 2023
Hershey’s Dismissal Motion Granted In Case Alleging Video Viewing Disclosures

SAN DIEGO — A chocolate manufacturer accused in a putative class complaint of disclosing user data of individuals who view a video on its website to a social media company has not been shown to be a videotape service provider, a federal judge in California ruled, granting the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss the single claim in the case brought under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) without leave to amend.
October 16, 2023
Government Wants More Time To Respond To X’s National Security Certiorari Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Filing a motion on behalf of U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its Director Christopher Wray on Oct. 13, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an extra month to respond to a petition for certiorari in which X. Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) questions the constitutionality of being barred from disclosing certain information about its compliance with national security letters (NSLs) served on it by the FBI.
October 12, 2023
$725 Million Settlement Of Facebook Profile-Sharing Class Action Gets Final OK

SAN FRANCISCO — Six months after preliminarily approving a $725 million settlement between Meta Platforms Inc. and the social media users whose Facebook profiles were shared with an analytics company, a California federal judge granted final approval to the agreement, deeming it “fair, reasonable, and adequate and in the best interests of the Settlement Class Members.”
October 11, 2023
Mortgage Servicer Accuses Payment Processor Of Misusing Customer Data

DALLAS — A mortgage payment processor misused a mortgage servicer’s customer data when it conducted quality assurance (QA) testing with customers’ nonpublic, personal information while in a live production environment rather than a walled-off testing environment, the mortgage servicer alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas.