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Mealey's Data Privacy

May 05, 2025
7th Circuit Vacates, Remands Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 2 vacated and remanded a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of a commercial liability insurer in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that a food ingredient manufacturer insured violated the Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that the statutory violation policy exclusion does not preclude coverage.
May 05, 2025
FBI Wants Full 9th Circuit To Decide State Secrets Issue In Surveillance Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States and two FBI personnel (government, collectively) filed a petition for rehearing en banc with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asking it to reconsider an “unorthodox” procedure a panel adopted that would permit a court to consider information covered by the state secrets privilege rather than fully excluding such information from a case entirely.
May 02, 2025
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Finds Mug Shot Requests Can Be Filled Only By Police

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Reversing rulings by a trial court, an appeals court and a state agency, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that a mug shot is an “identifiable description” under state law and, therefore, can be disseminated in response to individuals’ requests only by a police department.
May 01, 2025
4th Circuit En Banc Majority Won’t Stay Injunction In DOGE, SSA Records Case

RICHMOND, Va. — A divided en banc Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 denied a motion by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other federal government agencies and officials to stay a preliminary injunction order pending appeal in a case over the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to SSA data.
May 01, 2025
Law Students Sue EEOC, Chair Over Personal Data Requests In DEI Hiring Process Probe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three law students who applied to or worked at one or more of 20 law firms that were sent letters by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Acting Chair Andrea Lucas requesting disclosure of “sensitive personal information” regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring processes sued the EEOC and Lucas in District of Columbia federal court alleging that they “acted ultra vires in excess of their authority under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” by sending the letters without a properly filed charge.
April 30, 2025
Amici Tell 3rd Circuit Well-Intentioned Data Shield Law Violates 1st Amendment

PHILADELPHIA — Two trade associations and a nonprofit open records advocate teamed up on an amicus curiae brief in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, supporting a group of data brokers that seek to have a New Jersey data shield law, which protects personal data of judges and police, declared in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
April 29, 2025
$2.4 Million Settlement Of Anesthesia Firms’ Data Breach Gets Final Approval

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The same day that a New York federal judge presided over a fairness hearing for a $2.4 million settlement of a data breach suit against an anesthesia provider management company, he granted final approval of the agreement, disposing of putative class negligence and consumer protection violation claims against the firm and its affiliates in an April 28 order.
April 29, 2025
WhatsApp, Meta File Jury Instructions In Computer Fraud Suit Against Spyware Firm

OAKLAND, Calif. — One day before the start of a jury trial, plaintiffs WhatsApp LLC and Meta Platforms Inc. and defendants NSI Group Technologies Limited and Q Cyber Technologies Limited filed their proposed jury instructions in a California federal court in a dispute over alleged computer fraud, with each side submitting their own instructions on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
April 29, 2025
As 6th Circuit Mulls Rehearing 1 VPPA Suit, High Court Extends Briefing In Another

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a 60-day extension for a man to submit his response to a petition for certiorari pertaining to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in light of his pending rehearing motion in a very similar VPPA lawsuit on appeal in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
April 28, 2025
9th Circuit Partly Reverses Enjoining Of San Francisco Pretrial Monitoring Program

SAN FRANCISCO — Three men who were granted a preliminary injunction of certain provisions of a San Francisco electronic monitoring program saw that ruling partly reversed by a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, which found that revisions to the program alleviated some of the plaintiffs’ constitutional concerns.
April 28, 2025
Judge Partly Enjoins ‘Integrity Of Elections’ Executive Order

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted motions headed up by nonprofit voting rights organizations the League of Women Voters (LWV) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), as well as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to preliminarily enjoin one section of President Donald J. Trump’s recent executive order (EO) on “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” that would require people registering to vote to provide certain documents containing personal information.
April 23, 2025
Class Action Alleges Toyota, Progressive Violated Federal Wiretap Act

SHERMAN, Texas — A class action was filed in a Texas federal court alleging Toyota Motor North America Inc., Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and a provider of data analytics services in the automotive industry violated the Federal Wiretap Act and seeking to hold the defendants responsible for the injuries they inflicted on tens of thousands of class members because of their unauthorized collection and dissemination of private information from Toyota vehicles.
April 22, 2025
Unions Seek Injunction In DOL DOGE Access Suit After Partial Dismissal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Labor unions challenging access to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records by personnel from U.S. Digital Service and the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) filed a motion in a federal court in the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction; the filing was made two days after a judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ standalone Privacy Act claim as well several claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
April 22, 2025
En Banc 9th Circuit Finds Jurisdiction Over Shopping App For Cookie Collecting

SAN FRANCISCO — The en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 21 reversed a panel’s ruling and found that personal jurisdiction exists over putative class claims against a payment processing and shopping app accused of violating California privacy and unfair competition laws by concealing that it was using cookies to collect California consumers’ personal data for resale.
April 22, 2025
Harriet Carter Website User Appeals Wiretap Ruling To 3rd Circuit

PITTSBURGH — In the wake of a Pennsylvania federal court’s summary judgment ruling that disposed of her state wiretapping claim against Harriet Carter Gifts Inc., a plaintiff filed a notice of appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the ruling that found that she gave her implied consent to a third party’s interception of her communications on the website.
April 22, 2025
Officer Asks 3rd Circuit For Anonymity In Police, Judge Data Shield Law Row

PHILADELPHIA — A Jane Doe police officer moved to proceed anonymously in a coalition of data brokers’ appeal of a trial court ruling that upheld a New Jersey law requiring data brokers to remove, at a subject’s request, any data that identifies judges, law enforcement officer or family members, with Doe recounting, for the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, risks she has already faced that endangered her safety and that of her family.
April 21, 2025
High Court Denies Certiorari In Dispute Over 4th Amendment ‘Purse Exception’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 21 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied without comment a South Dakota woman’s petition for certiorari in which she asked whether an officer initiating a traffic stop needs probable cause to search a purse held or worn by a passenger.
April 18, 2025
$20 Million Global Settlement Of Fortra Software Data Breach MDL Gets Initial OK

MIAMI — The Florida federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over a 2023 security breach, experienced by users of Fortra LLC’s file-transfer app, granted preliminary approval to a $20 million global settlement that encompasses eight of nine putative class actions filed against the software company, its clients and their customers that provides for payments of up to $5,000 for affected class members.
April 16, 2025
Driver’s License Swiping Row Remanded To Oregon Court Without Attorney Fees Award

PORTLAND, Ore. — A putative class action over a gas station chain’s practice of swiping customers’ driver’s licenses for age-restricted purchases was remanded to state court, with an Oregon federal judge fully adopting a magistrate’s recommendation to grant the plaintiff’s motion to remand for lack of standing.
April 16, 2025
Judge Won’t Rethink APA Ruling Over DOGE Injunction For Treasury System Access

NEW YORK — States that sued the U.S. Treasury Department for granting access to the payment system of the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS) to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) failed in their motion for reconsideration of a ruling that two of their claims under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) were unlikely to succeed, with a New York federal judge rejecting new arguments and reiterating her position that the claims under the Privacy Act and the E-Government Act (EGA) do not fall within the states’ zone of interest.
April 15, 2025
Nevada High Court: Man Who Had Politicians Investigated May Not Remain Anonymous

LAS VEGAS — In a one-paragraph order, the Nevada Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of prohibition by a John Doe who claimed that he had a right under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to proceed anonymously after he was sued for invasion of privacy by two local politicians who were surveilled by a private investigator he hired.
April 14, 2025
5th Circuit: SNAP Program User Data Can’t Be Disclosed To Water System Manager

NEW ORLEANS — The creation of a new water rate pricing structure in Jackson, Miss., that provides discounts to recipients of benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) did not constitute a federal assistance program and, therefore, the city’s water system operator is not entitled to access of SNAP recipients’ personal data as part of the efforts to implement the new rates, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled.
April 11, 2025
Appeals Court Revives 2 BIPA Suits Over Nursing Homes’ Biometric Timeclocks

MT. VERNON, Ill. — In a pair of almost identical unpublished opinions, a Fifth District Appellate Court of Illinois panel reversed a trial court’s dismissal of two putative class actions by former employees alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) via nursing facilities’ use of biometric timeclocks.
April 11, 2025
Prevailing Parties In Data Supply Agreement Row Get Almost $2.2M In Attorney Fees

NEW YORK — Two marketing firms, which obtained a favorable summary judgment ruling over breach of contract and related claims by a data broker, were prevailing parties, a New York federal judge ruled, mostly granting their motion for attorney fees while declining to defer the ruling pending resolution of the plaintiff’s appeal.
April 11, 2025
Consolidated Suit Over Medical Device Firm’s Data Breach Partly Dismissed

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge partly granted a medical device manufacturer’s motion to dismiss putative class claims against it stemming from a data breach, disposing of a fiduciary duty claim and several state law consumer protection claims, while largely allowing negligence, unjust enrichment and implied contract claims to proceed.