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

Mealey's Data Privacy

February 03, 2023
Ohio Federal Judge Won’t Dismiss Right Of Publicity Case Against Ancestry.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Allegations that Ancestry.com violated the right of publicity of a purported plaintiff class when providing class members’ yearbook photos and other personal information to subscribers will proceed, a federal judge in Ohio has ruled, rejecting the genealogy website’s motion to dismiss.
February 02, 2023
Illinois High Court: 5-Year Limitations Period Applies To Biometric Privacy Act

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The five-year statute of limitations period in Section 13-205 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure applies to claims brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Feb. 2 in a class complaint by a worker alleging that his former employer collected the information without consent and then disclosed it to others without permission.
January 30, 2023
Activist Group Seeks FDA Compliance With FOIA Requests For Adverse Vaccination Data

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A children’s advocacy group known for questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccinations sued the Food and Drug Administration seeking to compel the agency to comply with two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records of the FDA’s safety monitoring of COVID-19 injections through the Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System (VAERS).
January 27, 2023
Meta Voices Support For $725 Million Settlement Of Profile-Sharing Privacy Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A month after plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of a $725 million settlement of a multidistrict litigation over the 2015 Facebook profile-sharing incident, Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) filed a statement in California federal court expressing its support of the agreement that would terminate the more than four-year-old consolidated lawsuit.
January 26, 2023
Alexa Eavesdropping Plaintiffs Accuse Amazon Of Flouting Court’s Discovery Order

SEATTLE — In a reply supporting a motion to compel, the plaintiffs in a putative class action over purported eavesdropping by Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa digital assistant ask a Washington federal court to compel the online retailer to comply with a previous discovery order via the court-ordered custodial search terms rather than by using “technology-assisted review” (TAR).
January 25, 2023
Wikimedia Asks High Court To Resolve Questions Of State Secrets Privilege

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Jan. 24 reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari, Wikimedia Foundation tells the U.S. Supreme Court that its lawsuit alleging statutory and constitutional violations in the National Security Agency’s upstream surveillance activities was wrongly dismissed under the state secrets privilege despite the fact that it was “able to proceed based entirely on public evidence.”
January 25, 2023
Final Settlement Hearing Held For $350 Million T-Mobile Data Breach MDL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Six months after granting preliminary approval to a $350 million settlement that would settle a multidistrict litigation over a 2021 data breach that exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of millions of T-Mobile US Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. (T-Mobile, collectively), a Missouri federal judge presided over a final approval hearing for the settlement.
January 24, 2023
Government Asks High Court To Uphold Fraud Sentence Under Identity Theft Statute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly upheld a trial court’s aggravated identity theft conviction of a psychologist under a federal identity theft statute, the U.S. government tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Jan. 23 respondent brief, contending that although the petitioner did not steal anything, he nevertheless used a patient’s identity to commit health care fraud, which constituted a direct violation of the statute.
January 23, 2023
Objectors To Zoom Privacy Settlement Seek Incentive Awards, Attorney Fees

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a reply brief, three class members who filed objections and now-dismissed appeals to the $85 million privacy class settlement with Zoom Video Communications Inc. defend their motions for incentive awards and attorney fees, telling a California federal court that their individually negotiated settlements with the defendant benefited the entire class and enhanced the class settlement.
January 18, 2023
11th Circuit Declines To Find Appeal Of Florida Vaccine Documentation Ban Moot

ATLANTA — In an appeal by Florida of a preliminary injunction granted by a Florida federal court enjoining the state surgeon general from enforcing a statutory ban on businesses requiring customers to provide documentation of COVID-19 vaccination, a split panel of the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion by a group of cruise ship lines to dismiss the appeal as moot, concluding that the cruise lines had not suspended their vaccination requirements and had continued to defend their right to equitable relief by requesting that the preliminary injunction be left intact.
January 13, 2023
Indiana Panel: Cyber Protection Endorsement’s Arbitration Agreement Does Not Apply

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana appeals panel held that an arbitration agreement in an insurance policy’s Cyber Protection Endorsement “clearly and unambiguously does not apply” a coverage dispute over claims that strip club owners used models’ photographs without their permission, reversing and remanding a lower court’s ruling that granted the models’ motion to compel arbitration.
January 13, 2023
SEC Seeks To Compel Law Firm To Comply With Investigative Subpoena Over Cyberattack

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Citing a refusal by Covington & Burling LLP to disclose the names of 298 of its clients that were affected by a cyberattack, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an application in District of Columbia federal court, seeking an order to show cause why the law firm should not be compelled to comply with an investigative subpoena by which the SEC says it wants to determine whether any material nonpublic information (MNPI) was compromised.
January 12, 2023
Android Users Appeal Dismissal Of Data Gathering Claims To 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two putative class plaintiffs recently filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a California federal judge dismissed their privacy and unfair competition claims based on Google LLC’s alleged collection of user data without notice or permission via apps on the Android operating system (OS).
January 12, 2023
Data Breach Suit Against Benefits Firm Survives Under Bailment Theory

INDIANAPOLIS — A Michigan man’s negligence and breach of contract putative class claims over a data breach experienced by a benefits administration firm survived a motion to dismiss, with an Indiana federal judge concluding that the claims were sufficiently pleaded under a bailment theory as recognized by Indiana law.
January 12, 2023
Google Assistant Privacy Plaintiffs Can’t File New Class Certification Motion

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Citing multiple previous deadline and trial extensions, a California federal judge denied a motion by the plaintiffs in a consolidated privacy suit over Google Assistant (GA) to modify a class definition, finding that the plaintiffs’ motion was procedurally flawed and that they had not shown good cause for the motion, which would require further date extensions.
January 09, 2023
Spyware Firm’s Sovereign Immunity Question Denied By U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Jan. 9 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to a spyware company that appealed the denial of its motion to dismiss computer fraud claims against it by WhatsApp Inc., leaving unanswered the petitioner’s question of whether it was entitled to sovereign immunity as an agent of a foreign government under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
January 06, 2023
Approval Sought For New $23 Million Settlement Of 12-Year-Old Google Privacy Row

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Almost eight years after an initial settlement was approved in a privacy suit over Google LLC’s referrer headers, the plaintiffs in the consolidated class action moved for preliminary approval in California federal court of a new proposed $23 million settlement with the tech giant of their claims under the Stored Communications Act (SCA).
January 04, 2023
9th Circuit: State Privacy Claims Against Google Not Preempted By COPPA

SEATTLE — Reversing a trial court’s dismissal of a group of minors’ privacy and unfair competition claims against Google LLC, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does not preempt the state law claims over the purported collection of children’s personally identifiable information (PII) on YouTube.
January 03, 2023
Psychologist, Professor Urge High Court To Construe Identity Theft Law Narrowly

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four days after a psychologist filed his petitioner merits brief in the U.S. Supreme Court championing a narrow construction of the federal aggravated identity theft statute under which he was convicted, a law professor filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the petitioner, encouraging the high court to avoid the vagueness that he says the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals employed in its affirmance of the petitioner’s conviction.
December 23, 2022
Digital Privacy Class Suit Against Gannett Survives Dismissal Motion

WORCESTER, Mass. — A federal judge in Massachusetts denied a motion by Gannett Co. Inc. to dismiss a putative class complaint alleging that it violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by sharing USA Today digital subscribers’ personally identifiable information (PII) with Facebook, finding that a violation was “plausibly plead[ed].”
December 22, 2022
Supreme Court Told Internet Subscriber Info Protected By 4th Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who was convicted of possessing child pornography argues in a petition for certiorari that law enforcement improperly conducted a warrantless search of his internet subscriber information, in which he has a reasonable expectation of privacy, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to find that such information enjoys protection under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
December 22, 2022
$3 Million Fees Award In Wawa Data Breach Suit Debated In 3rd Circuit

PHILADELPHIA — A lone objector to the settlement between Wawa Inc. and a consumer class over a 2019 data breach takes issue with a $3 million attorney fees award, asserting in his reply brief in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it was not assessed “in economic reality.”
December 21, 2022
FTC, Epic Games Agree To $275 Million Settlement Of Child Privacy Violations

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The same day the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) by Epic Games Inc. in its popular online game Fortnite, the commission moved in North Carolina federal court for entry of a stipulated order in which Epic agreed to injunctive relief and a penalty of $275 million to settle the claims against it.
December 21, 2022
Twitter Ex-Employee’s Wire Fraud Sentence Based On Gain, Judge Explains

SAN FRANCISCO — Following a denial of post-verdict motions, sentencing memoranda by both parties and a sentencing hearing, a California federal judge issued an order explaining why he considered gain in sentencing a former Twitter Inc. employee to 42 months’ imprisonment for sharing private user information with the Saudi Arabian government.
December 16, 2022
Judge Rejects $37.5 Million Settlement Of Facebook Location Tracking Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — After a preliminary approval hearing was held Dec. 15 for a proposed $37.5 million settlement of a privacy class action over the surreptitious location tracking by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) of users of the social network, a California federal judge issued a minute entry detailing why he was declining to approve the agreement in its present form.