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Mealey's Data Privacy

  • July 18, 2025

    On Day 2 Of Meta Trial, Zuckerberg, Officers, Directors Settle With Shareholders

    WILMINGTON, Del. — On the second day of a trial in Delaware state court over shareholders’ claims of fiduciary breaches by the officers and directors of Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) centering on the company’s high profile consumer privacy issues, the shareholders on July 17 filed a notice informing the court that the parties had settled the almost 15-year-old lawsuit.

  • July 18, 2025

    Lawsuit Over Database Site’s Use Of Photos, Personal Info May Proceed, Judge Rules

    SEATTLE — Two days after he denied a motion to compel arbitration by the operator of an online professional services database, a Washington federal judge also denied the company’s motions to dismiss and to strike class allegations, allowing putative class publicity rights claims to continue.

  • July 17, 2025

    Dismissal Denied In Antitrust, Hacking Lawsuits Over Car Dealership Software

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge issued rulings largely denying motions to dismiss in two lawsuits filed against each other by competitors in the auto dealership management system (DMS) market, which have accused each other of hacking proprietary data and antitrust violations blocking access to the market in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and antitrust law.

  • July 16, 2025

    Stay Extended In Geisinger Data Breach Suit As Parties Finalize Settlement

    WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Granting a joint motion to extend an existing stay in a consolidated, putative class action against a health care provider and its tech services vendor after a 2023 data breach, a Pennsylvania federal judge gave the parties 60 days to prepare a motion for preliminary approval of their recently announced settlement.

  • July 16, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of California Wiretap Claims Over Converse Chat App

    PASADENA, Calif. — A partly divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a trial court’s dismissal of claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) against Converse Inc., finding no evidence that the company wiretapped a plaintiff’s message to the company that was sent via a website chat app.

  • July 15, 2025

    While Meta Seeks Mandamus Over Zuckerberg Deposition, Plaintiffs Move To Enforce

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three days after Meta Platforms Inc. filed a petition for mandamus with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, contending that the “apex doctrine” precludes a trial court’s order for the deposition of Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, the plaintiffs alleging privacy violations from Meta’s purported gathering of their personal health information (PHI) from hospital websites asked the lower court to enforce the deposition order.

  • July 15, 2025

    School District Asks High Court To Resolve Conflicting FERPA Interpretations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Asserting that the congressional intent behind the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) was to prevent the disclosure of student materials without the consent of students or parents, a school district filed a petition for certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clear up conflicting court interpretations over enforcement of the statute alongside state public records acts (PRAs) and to find that it properly withheld surveillance videos sought in connection with bullying complaints.

  • July 14, 2025

    Per Confidential Agreement In Blackbaud Data Breach MDL, Settlement Fund Approved

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — In accord with a joint request by Blackbaud Inc. and the plaintiffs who sued it in a multidistrict litigation after a 2020 data breach, a South Carolina federal judge approved and established a qualified settlement fund (QSF) to be used in a confidential settlement of all claims against the cloud services company.

  • July 11, 2025

    Google Settles Menstrual App Privacy Claims, Is Granted Stay From Pending Trial

    SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks before the scheduled start of a trial over privacy class claims related to an ovulation-tracking app, a California federal judge granted a motion to stay the case against one of the defendants — Google LLC — in light of its reported settlement in principle with the consolidated plaintiffs.

  • July 11, 2025

    Debt Collector To Supreme Court: A Letter Is Not An Intrusion Upon Seclusion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A debt collection firm filed a petition for certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to find that a single letter errantly sent to a debtor, rather than his attorney, is not comparable to the tort of intrusion upon seclusion and, thus, does not constitute a concrete injury sufficient to establish jurisdiction for a claim under The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

  • July 11, 2025

    Privacy Suit Over TD Bank’s Use Of Meta Pixel Dismissed As Insufficiently Pleaded

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New York man’s putative class complaint over his bank’s purported sharing of his information with Meta Platforms Inc. was dismissed by a New Jersey federal judge, who found that the plaintiff failed to identify examples of his personal financial information (PFI) that were shared without his consent.

  • July 10, 2025

    Forum Selection Clause Issue Certified For Appeal In Crypto Wallet Data Breach Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — Declining to grant partial final judgment as to dismissed claims and defendants in a putative class action over a crypto-asset wallet firm’s 2020 data breach, a California federal judge, instead, granted interlocutory appeal on the issue of whether subcontractors of the wallet maker can avail themselves of a forum selection clause in the lead defendant’s terms of service (TOS).

  • July 09, 2025

    Judge Stays FTC, Meta Dispute Over Privacy Consent Order Changes

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Granting a motion to stay by Meta Platforms Inc., a District of Columbia federal judge issued a minute order putting the brakes on a suit in which the social media company accuses the Federal Trade Commission of exceeding its constitutional authority related to a consent order over Meta’s purported privacy violations, finding that a decision in a parallel suit in the same district between the same parties will likely be dispositive on the present suit.

  • July 08, 2025

    Bankruptcy Judge Approves $305 Million Purchase Of 23andMe And Data Transfer

    ST. LOUIS — In approving the sale of bankrupt genetic-testing firm 23andMe Holding Co. to a company run by its former chief executive officer, a Missouri federal bankruptcy judge also approved the transfer of 23andMe’s customers’ genetic data to the purchaser, overruling the objections of states that had expressed concerns over privacy of the genetic data.

  • July 08, 2025

    Argument Set For Data Brokers’ Motion To Dismiss Claims Over N.J. Data Shield Law

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A few days after a New Jersey federal judge partly denied a group of data brokers’ motion to dismiss 42 lawsuits over a New Jersey law that prevents the disclosure of the data of law enforcement and other officials for safety reasons, he set an August argument date to consider arguments that the suit should be dismissed as unconstitutional and preempted by federal law.

  • July 07, 2025

    3rd Circuit Affirms $3.2M In Attorney Fees, Costs In Wawa Data Breach Suit

    PITTSBURGH — Assessing a trial court judge’s review on remand of a $3.2 million attorney fees and costs award to consumers’ class counsel in a class action over Wawa Inc.’s 2019 data breach, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld the judge’s finding that the award did not contain a clear sailing agreement and was not the result of collusion.

  • July 03, 2025

    Panel Reverses Dismissal Of Candy Maker’s Ex-Employees’ Data Breach Complaint

    CHICAGO — Two former employees of a candy manufacturer adequately alleged injury and standing to bring their putative class claims based on a 2021 data breach that exposed their personally identifiable information (PII), an Illinois appeals panel found, mostly reversing a trial court’s dismissal ruling.

  • July 01, 2025

    Basketball Fan Asks Supreme Court To Reject NBA’s VPPA Certiorari Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Maintaining that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly found that he had standing to sue the National Basketball Association (NBA) for sharing his online viewing habits under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a California man filed a brief opposing the NBA’s petition for certiorari on June 30, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that there is no circuit split on standing.

  • June 30, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Dispute Over 4th Amendment Search Of Financial Records

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its June 30 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to a bitcoin user on his question over whether the Internal Revenue Service violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with the warrantless seizure of users’ financial records from a digital currency exchange.

  • June 30, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Denied In DOL Records DOGE Access Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Labor unions and nonprofits challenging U.S. Digital Service and U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) personnel’s right to access U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records failed to show imminent misuse or public disclosure, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled June 27, denying the unions and nonprofits’ request for a preliminary injunction.

  • June 26, 2025

    $45 Million Settlement Of Suits Over MGM Data Breaches Gets Final Approval

    LAS VEGAS — A $45 million settlement of a consolidated class action against MGM Resorts International over two data breach incidents that provides for payments of up to $15,000 in documented losses for class members was declared “fundamentally fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class” by a Nevada federal judge, as she granted final approval to the agreement.

  • June 25, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of NFL Videos VPPA Class Lawsuit

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a putative class complaint accusing the National Football League (NFL) of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing personal data about users of the NFL’s website, mobile application and video service with a third party, citing Solomon v. Flipps Media, Inc. as “‘binding and dispositive.’”

  • June 24, 2025

    Oregon Suggests Supreme Court Pass On Petition About Secret Recordings Ban

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Opposing a petition for certiorari filed by a pair of media organizations in the U.S. Supreme Court, Oregon officials on June 23 filed a brief in opposition defending a state statutory ban on most covert recordings as merely requiring modest notifications to recording subjects and not being a content-based regulation of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • June 24, 2025

    2 AT&T Data Breach MDLs Preliminarily Settle For Total Of $177 Million

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge granted preliminary approval to two settlement funds, totaling $177 million, to resolve multidistrict litigations in Texas and Montana related to two data security incidents experienced by AT&T Inc.

  • June 23, 2025

    VPPA, UCL Claims Against Online Video Retailers Must Be Arbitrated, Judge Rules

    SAN FRANCISCO — Determining that attempts to settle and dismiss putative class claims against online retailers under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) did not contradict an intent to arbitrate under a totality of the circumstances, a California federal judge granted the defendants’ motion to stay and to compel arbitration.