The New Wave of Web Tracking Litigation: Wiretap Statutes, VPPA Risk, and Consent Strategies — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Legal Alert | Wiretap Laws in the United States
In a trio of recent website tracking decisions, the District of Massachusetts resolved motions to dismiss privacy claims related to third-party tracking technologies on healthcare websites: Progin v. UMass Memorial Health...more
A landmark federal court ruling in August 2025 established a new pathway for class action plaintiffs to leverage alleged misstatements and inaccuracies in corporate privacy policies as the foundation for federal wiretapping...more
Most companies want to understand how visitors interact with their websites. That insight supports better user experiences, improved conversion rates and more effective marketing. However, practices that were once routine are...more
Welcome to Part Two of our series that examines the ECPA as a private right of action for privacy policy inaccuracies. In Part One of this series, we examined how a wave of state-law wiretapping litigation — predominantly...more
Healthcare and healthcare-adjacent companies face a wave of litigation over ubiquitous website tracking technologies used for a range of analytics and advertising purposes. Claims under the federal Electronic Communications...more
An August 2025 federal court ruling has opened the door for plaintiffs to use alleged inaccuracies or misrepresentations in a company’s privacy policy and other privacy disclosures as the basis for a federal wiretapping claim...more
A popular digital ed-tech platform recently paid $17.25M to settle a class action lawsuit filed by Chicago’s Board of Education that alleged it illegally tracked confidential student information through third-party analytics...more
A new putative class action in the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:26-cv-01133) targets Lenovo’s use of third‑party tracking pixels on its U.S. website, advancing a novel “bulk transfer” theory that links routine...more
Five takeaways from March 2026 decisions: (1) Courts diverge on “purpose” requirement in ECPA’s crime-tort exception; (2) Courts consider ECPA exception outside the health care industry; (3) Contradictory statements in...more
A significant and rapidly developing split has emerged among federal district courts regarding whether claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) can advance based on the use of common website tracking...more
The use of email-tracking technology is drawing heightened regulatory scrutiny and has become a growing target of litigation. For many organizations, these technologies, which could be in the form of a “pixel,” “beacon” or...more
The Law Conference of Champions brings together leading voices from government, industry, and the legal community to engage in practical, forward-looking discussions on advertising law, consumer protection, data privacy, and...more
State legislatures are regulating what AI chatbots say. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are suing over what AI chatbots collect. Most compliance teams are only watching one front....more
Questions about employee monitoring, especially electronic monitoring, come up regularly these days. Monitoring can involve email, computer log-in history, surveillance cameras, GPS devices, and various types of production...more
As our readers know, the use of internet tracking technologies on consumer-facing websites is widespread. Utilization of these third-party tracking tools, however, has led to a proliferation of lawsuits alleging that...more
Key point: In this post: (1) increase in ECPA litigation as courts extend “crime tort” exception beyond health care; (2) service provider wins again against wiretapping claim; (3) defendants lose standing arguments in federal...more
On January 13, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a significant opinion in Lisota v. Heartland Dental, LLC and RingCentral, Inc., a case involving popular AI-enhanced recording tools in...more
In a significant win for electronic communication providers that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) as part of their core functions, the Northern District of Illinois held that a defendant’s AI transcription and analytics...more
Another federal court just gave privacy plaintiffs exactly what they’ve been looking for: a green light to pursue nationwide digital wiretapping claims based on common website tracking practices. In a January 14 decision in...more
As remote work, digital collaboration platforms, and cybersecurity threats continue to expand, many employers are increasingly relying on electronic workplace monitoring tools. These tools may include email and messaging...more
A California federal court recently handed healthcare businesses another victory in the ongoing wave of privacy lawsuits targeting website analytics and tracking tools. A California federal judge ruled on November 21 that...more
In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis is joined by colleagues Jason Manning, Angelo Stio, and Rob Jenkin to unpack the surge of litigations arising from the use of tracking technologies (e.g., cookies,...more
Four federal courts issued decisions in August involving claims that healthcare companies violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) by deploying tracking technologies—such as the Meta Pixel and Google...more
In this post: (1) The 9th Circuit tightens what “harm” a plaintiff must suffer to have standing; (2) the D.C. Circuit adds to growing circuit split on defining “consumers”; (3) Three courts find plaintiffs consented via...more
Addressing the litigation and regulatory risks regarding tracking technologies requires a balanced approach between legal exposure and business impact, through a close and continuing collaboration between legal, technology,...more