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"
In a significant win for Royal Caribbean Cruises, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that alleged the cruise line’s website violated a California privacy law by using a TikTok tracking tool. The case, Kishnani v. Royal...more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Welcome to the nineteenth 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. We are covering...more
In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind decision, a California federal court just granted class certification in a wiretapping claim brought against a website operator that used third-party technology to track users’...more
The California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) and the Massachusetts Wiretap Act (“MWA”) are state statutes which prohibit the unlawful recording of communications. As our readers can guess, CIPA and MWA originally were...more
If your business operates online and uses common marketing tools, your business is at risk of being targeted for lawsuits under pre-internet wiretapping and video rental privacy laws. It is critical to address and mitigate...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