The ‘Long Arm’ of CIPA and Its Newfound Pen-Trap Claims
On June 3, 2025, the California Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 690 (SB 690), a bill that seeks to add a “commercial business purposes” exception to the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)....more
CYBERSECURITY - U.S. Retailers Bracing for Scattered Spider Attacks - Google sent out a warning that the cybercriminal group Scattered Spider is targeting U.S.-based retailers. Scattered Spider is believed to have been...more
This week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of children’s clothing retailer Janie & Jack, which sought to enjoin over 2,400 individual arbitration claims resulting from alleged...more
On April 29, 2025, the Senate Public Safety Committee voted 6-0 to advance legislation that would exempt processing of personal information for a commercial business purpose from coverage by the California Invasion of Privacy...more
Businesses just received some good news when a federal court dismissed a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) claim that aimed to expand the reach of the state’s wiretapping law to cover internet communications. The...more
In a big win for businesses, a California federal court just held that a “tester” plaintiff – someone who visits websites for purposes of initiating litigation – cannot bring a claim under the California Invasion of Privacy...more
As the privacy litigation landscape continues to take shape, search bars have quietly become a Trojan horse in online data collection, carrying new legal theories into the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) arena. The...more
Recent months have seen a dramatic increase in demand letters and litigation targeting websites and mobile apps. These claims often allege privacy violations stemming from the use of various technologies such as chat bots,...more
The California Invasion of Privacy Act continues to be a focal point for privacy litigation, particularly concerning website tracking practices. A recent case, Gabrielli v. Insider Inc. sheds new light on whether collecting...more
Three recent federal court cases consider whether the use of third party trackers embedded in websites can be the basis of class action lawsuits alleging violations of statutes enacted before the internet existed. These...more
While readers of this blog are familiar with the proliferation of California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) wiretapping claims, our readers may be less familiar with CIPA-related GET Request claims. Below, we explain what...more
Privacy litigation has taken California (and the country) by storm. In the past twenty-four months, the focus of privacy litigation has shifted from data breaches to data use, and the number of class actions filed grows by...more
On February 18, 2025, US District Judge Edgardo Ramos of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss against a plaintiff bringing claims under California...more
Beware of demand letters from plaintiffs’ attorneys for allegations of illegal use of pen registers, trap and trace pixels, and search bar pixels—why? This “trap and trace” litigation is a growing trend for plaintiffs’...more
As the debate simmers about the proper application of the wiretapping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), courts continue to weigh in on what technologies may constitute improper third-party...more
In 2024, plaintiffs across the United States filed various class action cases related to web tracking technology employed by companies to enhance user experience on their websites and to improve the efficacy of their...more
Welcome to the twentieth installment in our monthly data privacy litigation report. We prepare these reports to provide updates on how courts in the United States have handled emerging data privacy trends. After our expansive...more
Two recent court decisions have provided businesses with long-awaited clarity on the reach of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) – and could begin to redefine digital privacy litigation for the better. Two separate...more
A California federal district court recently granted class certification in a lawsuit against a financial services company. The case involves allegations that the company’s website used third-party technology to track users’...more
Our readers are well aware of the proliferation of lawsuits alleging California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) violations against companies that use third-party tracking technology to collect consumer data on their...more
Despite some favorable rulings, lawsuits alleging California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) claims against companies that use third-party tracking technology to collect consumer data on their websites show no signs of...more
Businesses continue to be subjected to a steady stream of consumer class action lawsuits alleging improper collection or disclosure of information from their websites. A variety of laws and legal claims are used to support...more
These lawsuits make generalized allegations that business websites use software or tools to collect various types of device and browsing information from website visitors and that businesses then share such information with...more
Data privacy-related lawsuits have skyrocketed in recent years. Federal courts saw over 900 data privacy dockets in 2020 – but witnessed a surge to 1,767 dockets in 2023. At the halfway point in 2024, federal court data...more
As an onslaught of recent class actions allege, companies may be liable for eavesdropping and wiretapping based on the use of common analytics software on their platforms. For instance, in California, plaintiffs have filed...more