Legal Alert | Wiretap Laws in the United States
Anti-Wiretap Class Actions Against Website Operators Surge, but Proper Consent Can Reduce Risk
Webinar Recording – Assessing the Surge in Wiretap Litigation
Is Edward Snowden a Whistleblower?
Rajaratnam Judge: Wiretaps in Insider Trading Cases are "Radical"
Blank Rome presents a new summer webinar series where our interdisciplinary team will unpack the most pressing legal, regulatory, and policy developments from the Trump Administration’s first 180 days. Each session offers...more
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
On June 3, 2025, the California Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 690 (SB 690) in a 35-0 vote, a strong show of support for reining in a flood of lawsuits that have taken many companies by surprise over the last few...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
A national leader in privacy law, California was among the first states to include an express right to privacy in its constitution, create a data breach notification law, and codify robust consumer data protections. ...more
The ubiquity of smartphones and sensitive security cameras have made audio recording in the workplace more common. Some may be accidental, while other recordings may be intentional attempts document workplace conversations...more
On May 13, 2025, a $19.5 million settlement of a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) class action against a major financial institution and its telemarketing vendor moved one step closer to final approval. The...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
Keypoint: In this post: (1) The Ninth Circuit holds essentially any website can be sued in California; (2) two courts limit pen registry claims; (3) courts split on whether privacy policies establish consent for wiretapping...more
California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) wiretapping claims against online businesses are topics with which our readers are well-versed. Inconsistent court decisions about whether wiretapping claims under CIPA apply to the...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
Topics that we often discuss on this blog are the use of third-party tracking tools and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”). Less discussed of late, however, is the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) which,...more
In a big win for businesses, a California federal court just held that a “tester” plaintiff—someone who visits websites to initiate litigation—cannot bring a claim under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)....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
Keypoint: In this post: (1) California considers a “commercial exception” to wiretapping and pen registry laws; (2) a rise in federal wiretapping claims against websites; (3) more courts impose “knowledge or intent”...more
Yahoo’s ConnectID is a cookieless identity solution that allows advertisers and publishers to personalize, measure, and perform ad campaigns by leveraging first-party data and 1-to-1 consumer relationships. ConnectID uses...more
In late March, an online retailer successfully asserted consent as a complete defense to a putative Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act of 1978 (WESCA) class action lawsuit, resulting in the...more
Readers of this blog know about the never-ending barrage of consumer privacy litigation commenced against online companies in connection with their collection of consumer data. Several of these cases have recently been filed...more
An oft-discussed topic on this blog is the rise in lawsuits asserting illegal wiretapping claims against companies that use technology on their websites to track consumer interactions. Recently, a Pennsylvania federal judge...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
Welcome to the “Telephone Consumer Protection Act” chapter of our annual report, Consumer Financial Services: 2024 Year in Review. Companies were mere hours away from implementing radical changes to lead forms and consent...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
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
The first class action complaint was filed under Washington’s My Health My Data Act (“MHMDA”) on February 10, 2025, more than a year after the law’s passage. When the law passed in April 2023, MHMDA was novel for its broad...more