The ‘Long Arm’ of CIPA and Its Newfound Pen-Trap Claims
Readers of this blog are aware of the barrage of California Invasion of Privacy (“CIPA”) claims brought against online companies. Recently, an unfavorable decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Ninth Circuit”)...more
In Mikulsky v. Bloomingdale’s (June 2025), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) class action, holding that the plaintiff sufficiently alleged...more
A new lawsuit just filed against an AI software provider offers a clear warning for any business using artificial intelligence to monitor or record customer service calls. On June 13, a California plaintiff filed a federal...more
It’s 2025, and somehow, we’re still dealing with lawsuits over a law that was born in the pen registers and rotary phones era. That law, the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), a decades-old statute that’s suddenly...more
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
California Senate Bill 690 (SB 690), introduced by Senator Anna Caballero, is continuing to proceed through the California state legislative process. The proposed bill would amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)...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
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
Keypoint: In this post: (1) How a privacy policy can defeat a plaintiff’s “delayed discovery” argument; (2) Two CA state courts reject plaintiffs’ allegations concerning personal jurisdiction; (3) Three courts dismiss PR/TT...more
Generative AI continued to be a hot topic for privacy-related litigation in 2024. In the US, companies using and deploying this technology saw themselves subject to lawsuits under various state and federal theories of...more
The deluge of lawsuits and demand letters under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) has prompted courts to scrutinize CIPA claims more rigorously, including the threshold question of whether CIPA plaintiffs have...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
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
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
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
If you are looking for a high-level summary of California laws regulating artificial intelligence (AI), check out the two legal advisories issued by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The first advisory is directed at...more
Keypoint: California state courts weigh in on what does, and does not, qualify as a “pen registry” or “tap and trace” device while one California federal court raises whether a wiretapping claim can also allow for a CCPA...more