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

Mealey's Data Privacy

May 29, 2025
Final OK Given To $3.25 Million Settlement Of Class Action Over USAA Data Breach

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An almost 4-year-old suit over a 2021 data breach experienced by United Services Automobile Association (USAA) was resolved when a New York federal judge approved a $3.25 million settlement between the insurance company and a lone lead plaintiff, disposing of claims including negligence and violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).
May 28, 2025
Judge Dismisses Trump, Not Musk Or DOGE, From States’ Appointments Clause Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Granting in part a motion to dismiss filed by President Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a District of Columbia federal judge on May 27 dismissed appointments clause and ultra vires claims against the president because the court was not permitted to issue an injunction against the president related to his official duties.
May 28, 2025
7th Circuit Refuses To Reconsider Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violations

CHICAGO —The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined a commercial liability insurer’s invitation to reconsider its opinion that vacated and remanded a lower court’s ruling in favor of the 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).
May 28, 2025
Golden Corral, Employees Settle Data Breach Class Action For $1.85 Million

RALEIGH, N.C. — A $1.85 million settlement of class claims over a 2013 data breach experienced by Golden Corral Corp. received final approval from a North Carolina federal judge, who deemed the restaurant chain’s agreement with a class of employees whose personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised in the breach to be “fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the” class.
May 28, 2025
Nonprofits Appeal Injunction Denial Over IRS Sharing Of Taxpayer Data With DHS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four nonprofit immigrant rights organizations filed a notice of appeal in District of Columbia federal court after a judge denied their motion to temporarily enjoin the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of the Treasury from sharing private taxpayer information with the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of enforcing criminal immigration proceedings.
May 28, 2025
Doctor Appeals No Coverage Ruling In Suit Arising From Alleged Hidden Cameras

NEW YORK — A doctor insured filed a notice of appeal asking the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review a lower federal court’s dismissal of her breach of contract lawsuit seeking business interruption and umbrella coverage for her losses arising from discovery of hidden cameras at her dermatology office.
May 27, 2025
OpenAI: ChatGPT Output Preservation ‘Unprecedented’ Privacy Violation

SAN FRANCISCO — Requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs users wish to delete simply so news plaintiffs in a copyright suit can secure a litigation advantage constitutes an “unprecedented” privacy violation and sets a “dangerous precedent,” OpenAI entities tell a federal court in California in a May 23 supplemental opposition after a magistrate judge ordered the preservation and denied a motion for reconsideration.
May 23, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Briefs Debate Injunction Stay Request In SSA Records Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Discretionary review by the U.S. Supreme Court of an injunction in a case over Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Social Security Administration (SSA) data is not necessary as the application by the SSA and other federal government agencies and officials fails to “present a question meriting” high court review, a union and two groups argue in their opposition; however, the federal government parties write in their reply that the groups lack standing and their claims will fail on the merits.
May 22, 2025
Settling FTC Claims, GoDaddy Agrees To Upgrade Security, Halt Misrepresentations

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission on May 21 announced a settlement of an agency action against GoDaddy Inc., for having inadequate security for its networks and servers and for misrepresenting the quality of its security, establishing requirements for the webhost to upgrade its network security.
May 22, 2025
Class Mostly Certified In Privacy Suit Alleging Tracking By Ovulation App

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of women in a consolidated suit alleging privacy violations by the creator of the Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app saw their motion for class certification mostly granted by a California federal judge who found that the plaintiffs satisfied the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 “with a few specific, claim-related exceptions.”
May 21, 2025
Insurer Challenges 7th Circuit Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — A commercial liability seeks rehearing of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that vacated and remanded a lower court’s ruling in its favor 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), asking the appeals court to amend and correct its opinion to omit any reference to an underlying settlement and omit its conclusion that the insurer will have a duty to indemnify under a 2015 insurance policy if the insured’s notice of the underlying claim was timely.
May 21, 2025
23andMe Reports Bankruptcy Asset Sale, Suggests Global Settlement Of Privacy Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months after a consolidated privacy suit over a breach of 23andMe Inc.’s network was stayed for bankruptcy proceedings, the financially troubled DNA testing company informed a California federal court in a May 20 joint case management statement that “substantially all” of its assets had been purchased in a three-day auction pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.
May 20, 2025
$6 Million Settlement Of Class Suit Over Union’s Data Breach Gets Final Approval

NEW YORK — Two union members were granted final approval of class negligence and breach of contract claims against a labor union over a 2023 data breach, with a New York federal judge deeming the $6 million settlement to be preferable to the expenses and “uncertainties of continued litigation.”
May 20, 2025
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear State Secrets Dispute In Suit Over Muslim Surveillance

SAN FRANCISCO — The FBI was denied its bid for en banc rehearing of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruling that established a new procedure for courts to consider information covered by the state secrets privilege rather than simply excluding all such information from a lawsuit alleging improper surveillance of Muslims by the FBI.
May 19, 2025
Privacy, Computer Fraud Claims Against Musk, Agencies Voluntarily Dismissed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A putative class complaint brought by six U.S. citizens in District of Columbia federal court against Elon Musk and two U.S. government agencies over the purported “unlawful ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information” was voluntarily dismissed without explanation before the government could respond to the complaint.
May 19, 2025
D.C. Circuit: Trial Court Has Jurisdiction Over $5 Billion Meta Privacy Penalty

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 2020 stipulated order in which the Federal Trade Commission penalized Facebook Inc. $5 billion for its continuing practices of sharing users’ personal information included an attachment that contained details about the order, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found May 16, concluding, therefore, that a trial court retained jurisdiction over enforcement of the settlement.
May 19, 2025
Child Porn Evidence From Warrantless Phone Search Suppressed By Judge

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Border agents’ search of an airline passenger’s smartphone without a warrant or probable cause violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to a New York federal judge, who also found no evidence that the search was conducted in good faith, leading her to grant the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence of child pornography that was obtained via the illegal search.
May 15, 2025
Health Care Firm’s Data Breach Suit Settlement Provides Up To $5,000 Per Claimant

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge on May 14 granted an unopposed motion for preliminary approval to the settlement of class claims over a health care provider’s 2023 data security incident, giving an initial thumbs up to an agreement that would provide for payments of up to $5,000 for each claimant in a settlement class he said “is likely to include millions of people.”
May 14, 2025
Attorney Fees Clarified In Clearview Settlement While Objectors Appeal

CHICAGO — Almost two months after final approval was granted to a settlement of claims against the creator and curator of a massive digital photo database under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Illinois federal judge who presided over the consolidated class action granted the plaintiffs’ unopposed motion for amended judgment, clarifying that she also approved their request for an award of attorney fees.
May 13, 2025
Texas Settles Google Privacy Suits For More Than $1.3 Billion

AUSTIN, Texas — The same day that the Texas Supreme Court granted a 30-day abatement to the state’s petition over an appeals court’s ruling that dismissed privacy claims over purported location tracking by Google LLC, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a $1,375,000,000 settlement with the tech giant that resolves that suit as well as another accusing Google of collecting users’ biometric information.
May 13, 2025
Insurer Appeals Dismissal Of Subrogation Claims In Suit Over Ransomware Attack

WILMINGTON, Del. — An insurer filed a notice indicating it is appealing a Delaware judge’s grant of an application service provider’s motion to dismiss with prejudice its amended complaint, challenging the judge’s finding that it failed to properly assert subrogation claims seeking recovery from the provider for the amount paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack.
May 13, 2025
Judge: Reinsurance Info Is Relevant In Cyberattack Coverage Lawsuit

BALTIMORE — A media company that sued excess insurers it alleges owe millions in connection with an October 2021 cyberattack has obtained a mixed ruling on discovery disputes, with a Maryland federal magistrate judge concluding in part that “reinsurance policies, as well as related documents and communications, are relevant to [the plaintiff’s] bad faith claim and should be produced.”
May 09, 2025
Philadelphia Inquirer Users Will Receive $27.30 Each To Settle VPPA, Wiretap Suit

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge decreed the settlement of class claims against the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC under the Video Protection Privacy Act (VPPA) and a state wiretap law to be “fair, reasonable, and adequate,” granting final approval to the agreement, under which the newspaper operator will pay more than $1.1 million to cover class members’ claims, costs and attorney fees.
May 07, 2025
Final Approval Given To $9 Million Settlement Of Parking App Data Breach Suit

ATLANTA — Six months after a Georgia federal judge preliminarily approved a $9 million settlement of a class action over a 2021 data breach experienced by the operator of mobile parking apps, he granted a motion for final approval of the deal on May 6, finding it to be “fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class.”
May 07, 2025
Jury Awards Over $167M In Punitive Damages In Meta Verdict Against Spyware Firm

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal jury on May 6 issued a verdict finding that an Israeli-based manufacturer of spyware violated a California computer fraud law and should pay punitive damages of $167,254,000 and compensatory damages of $444,719 to plaintiffs WhatsApp LLC and Meta Platforms Inc.