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

Mealey's Data Privacy

May 22, 2023
4th Amendment Question Over Pole Camera Surveillance Rejected By Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Massachusetts woman whose home was the subject of an eight-month surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) saw her petition for certiorari denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 22, leaving unanswered her question on whether such long-term surveillance via a pole camera violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
May 22, 2023
Twitter Denied Rehearing Bid In 9th Circuit Appeal Over FBI Surveillance Report

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals won’t rehear en banc its ruling that the Federal Bureau of Investigation properly invoked national security concerns when it prevented Twitter Inc. from publicizing a report on its involvement in government surveillance activities, thus permitting a panel ruling from March to stand.
May 12, 2023
Taco Bell Worker’s Biometric Data Collection Class Suit Ordered To Arbitration

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A federal judge in Illinois granted a restaurant service group and its related entities’ motion for arbitration in a putative class complaint by a Taco Bell employee who alleges that workers’ biometric data is collected, used and stored in violation of Illinois law, finding that the employee herself argued that the signatory to the arbitration agreement, a nonparty to the suit, has an agency relationship with the defendants.
May 05, 2023
Class Suit Accuses Starbucks Of Violating New York City Biometric Collection Law

NEW YORK — Starbucks Corp. violates New York City’s “Biometric Identifier Information Law” by collecting and sharing the biometric identifier information of all customers who enter the marketplace or lounge seating areas of the Starbucks-Amazon Go stores, a New York woman alleges in her class complaint filed in a federal court in New York on May 4.
May 05, 2023
Alexa Users Denied Bid To Amend Amazon Voice Data Collection Suit

SEATTLE — A putative class complaint alleging state and common-law claims against Amazon.com Inc. for its use of customer data collected via its Alexa digital assistant products in targeted ads will not be amended, a Washington federal judge ruled, denying the lead plaintiffs’ amendment motion that was filed in the wake of a dismissal ruling.
May 04, 2023
Employer, Employee Reach Undisclosed Settlement In Searched Texts Case

PHILADELPHIA — An employer and an employee who sued alleging that his personal text messages dating back more than a year were searched by his employer before his firing filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice in a federal court in Pennsylvania after reaching an undisclosed settlement.
May 04, 2023
7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Genetic Privacy Claims Against Ancestry.com Buyer

INDIANAPOLIS — Two clients of Ancestry.com DNA LLC provided only “sparse allegations” that an investment firm that purchased the genealogy-tracing company violated the nondisclosure requirements of the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of their putative class complaint for failure to state a claim.
May 03, 2023
ACLU, EFF Back Twitter’s Rehearing Bid In Suit Over Reporting On FBI Surveillance

SEATTLE — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several ACLU affiliates collaborated on an amicus curiae brief supporting Twitter Inc.’s petition for rehearing en banc by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals over a gag order precluding it from going public about its compliance with FBI surveillance orders, with the amici asserting that a panel’s ruling in favor of the government supported the imposition of “a quintessential prior restraint” that infringed Twitter’s First Amendment rights.
May 03, 2023
Match Group’s Discovery, Seal Motions Denied In FTC Enforcement Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Match Group Inc. failed to establish that the Federal Trade Commission initiated an action to enforce a civil investigative demand (CID) with improper motives, a District of Columbia federal magistrate judge ruled, denying the dating website operator’s motion to conduct related discovery, while also denying the company’s motion to seal the proceedings in which the FTC seeks documents related to its investigation of the purported sharing of users’ pictures and information with a facial recognition firm.
May 02, 2023
ACA Asbestos Program Suit Parties Parry Bid To Quash Subpoenas To U.S. Agencies

MISSOULA, Mont. — The United States says in a motion to quash that an agency already produced almost all the information two subpoenas seek and that further searches into whether a medical facility meets the criteria for “qualified physicians” under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act program involving Libby, Mont., asbestos exposures “will simply waste time while yielding ever diminishing returns.” But in a joint response, the parties in the federal litigation in Montana say the subpoenas are not burdensome and that to the extent the answers to the subpoena questions are self-evident, the questions should be easy to answer.
May 02, 2023
Dismissal Granted In Class Suit Accusing GameStop Of Sharing Web Chat Data

SAN DIEGO — A retail gaming company accused of sharing web chat conversations with a third party falls within the “party exception” of federal and state privacy statutes, a federal judge in California ruled, dismissing putative class claims brought by a customer who alleges that his and others’ personal information was improperly shared.
May 02, 2023
Surveilled Woman Tells High Court ATF’s Pole Camera Violated 4th Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The eight-month surveillance of her home via a pole camera installed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a Massachusetts woman asserts in a May 1 reply brief supporting her petition for certiorari, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that the government inappropriately seeks to apply older precedent to “newer privacy-invading surveillance technologies.”
May 01, 2023
Deposition On Discovery Burden Ordered In Harriet Carter Data Collection Suit

PITTSBURGH — Granting in part a motion to compel discovery, a Pennsylvania federal judge found that the lead plaintiff in a putative class action over Harriet Carter Gifts Inc.’s purported data gathering was entitled to discovery about user information sent from the retailer’s website to a business partner, but citing uncertainty about whether it was burdensome, the judge ordered a deposition of a company representative to make that determination.
April 27, 2023
On 2nd Try, $37.5 Million Facebook Tracking Settlement Preliminarily Approved

SAN FRANCISCO — Four months after denying the first motion for approval filed by the plaintiffs in a privacy class action over Meta Platforms Inc.’s purported tracking of Facebook users’ locations, a California federal judge on April 26 granted preliminary approval to a proposed $37.5 million settlement.
April 27, 2023
Android Users Tell 9th Circuit Data-Gathering Claims Against Google Were Proper

SAN FRANCISCO — Two smartphone users tell the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an appellant brief that a California federal judge wrongly dismissed their fraud and unfair competition claims against Google LLC for allegedly collecting data on third-party app usage via its Android operating system (OS) without notice, writing that the judge wrongly found the secure storage of their private data “not ‘central’” to the “functionality” of a smartphone.
April 26, 2023
Judge Remands Data-Sharing Class Claims Against Medical Center To State Court

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a plaintiff’s motion to remand his putative class action against a health care provider for allegedly invading his privacy and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using various tracking tools in its website and app to state court after the judge rejected the provider’s argument that federal directives regarding online patient access create “federal officer jurisdiction.”
April 26, 2023
Lawyer Files Class Claims Against ABA After Hacking Incident Is Announced

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A member of the American Bar Association (ABA) sued the organization in New York federal court just days after it was announced that a hacker had breached its network and gained access to some information of ABA members.
April 26, 2023
Hospital Data Breach Plaintiffs Seek To Appeal Denial Of Remand Motion

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The plaintiffs in five consolidated putative class actions over a Florida hospital’s 2021 data breach filed a status report informing a Florida federal judge of their intention to appeal his recent denial of their motion to remand the individual cases to state court.
April 24, 2023
Illinois High Court: LMRA Preempts Worker’s Hand Scan Biometric Privacy Claims

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Because a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) governed the method a university’s employees clocked in and out of work, the Illinois Supreme Court found that a former employee’s putative class claims over the use of his hand scan under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA).
April 20, 2023
Divided 9th Circuit Panel Affirms No Arbitration In Amazon Wiretapping Class Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Without proof that it notified drivers of a new Terms of Service Agreement (TOS) in 2019, Amazon.com Inc.’s arbitration motion in a putative class complaint alleging that it monitored communications by drivers on a private Facebook page is subject to 2016 TOS with an arbitration clause that did not encompass such actions, a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 19.
April 17, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Tortured Chinese Activist’s Hacked Emails Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a Chinese pro-democracy activist’s lawsuit against two Yahoo! Inc. successor entities and two former Yahoo executives accusing them of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Alien Torts Statute (ATS) by sharing his emails with Chinese officials and causing his imprisonment and torture.
April 14, 2023
McDonald’s Granted Protective Order In AI Voiceprint Class Lawsuit

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on April 13 granted a motion for a protective order sought by McDonald’s Corp. in a putative class complaint alleging that the franchisor violates Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting voiceprints to place drive-through orders.
April 13, 2023
Judge: Reconsideration Not Vehicle To Challenge Agency Asbestos Testimony Ruling

MISSOULA, Mont. — The correct way to challenge an order compelling testimony from government agencies is by moving to quash the subpoenas and not in a motion for reconsideration of the ruling ordering the testimony, a federal judge in Montana said in a False Claims Act (FCA) case involving asbestos-related Medicare claims filed under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program.
April 12, 2023
Tesla Hit With Class Suit Alleging Employees Access, Share Images And Videos

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Inc. employees access, use and share video recordings and images of customers captured by vehicle cameras without customers’ consent, one customer alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in California.
April 11, 2023
COVID-19 Contact Tracing Data Breach Class Settlement Approved

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted final approval of a class settlement under which an employment staffing company accused of failing to safeguard private health information (PHI) contained in Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 contact tracing lists will provide monetary payments for out-of-pocket expenses and two years of credit monitoring and credit restoration protections.