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"
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
Readers of this blog may recall a recent favorable decision handed down by Massachusetts State’s highest court in which it found that Massachusetts Wiretap Act claims (“MWA”) do not extend to consumer interactions with...more
Massachusetts’ highest court recently issued an opinion that delves into the complex intersection of privacy law and modern technology. The case centers around whether the collection and transmission of users’ web browsing...more
In a significant decision for website operators, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court clarified that tracking users’ web activity does not constitute illegal wiretapping under the state’s Wiretap Act. The court found that...more
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (the “SJC”) has held that the state’s wiretap act does not prohibit the tracking of a person’s browsing of and interaction with published information on websites. On behalf of...more
Keypoint: California district courts continue to split over whether “knowledge” is required to plead liability under Section 631(a)’s fourth prong while two decisions show courts taking different approaches to VPPA claims at...more
We continue to learn more about the courts’ perspective on claims under the California Information Privacy Act (“CIPA”). Last month, in Moody v. C2 Educational Systems Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Central District of...more
Keypoint: Courts have started to issue Pixel-based wiretapping decisions, the Seventh Circuit weighs in on when a manufacturer can be forced to pay arbitration fees, and three courts showed different approaches to dismissing...more
Readers of this blog may recall our prior piece about recent lawsuits alleging that the use of tracking software on certain websites violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”). While earlier lawsuits focused on...more
Keypoint: Two California state court decisions have addressed motions to dismiss claims under the novel “pen registry” and “tap and trace” theories, but reached different outcomes after finding different policy considerations...more
For the past several years, website owners that gather data from California residents have faced a surge in class action lawsuits and threatened lawsuits alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)....more
In the latest example of privacy laws being stretched to fit new digital technologies, plaintiffs have begun to file a flurry of suits alleging that retailers are using pen register and trap-and-trace software to illegally...more
For the past two years, hundreds of class action lawsuits alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) have plagued California retailers and consumer-facing service providers. These lawsuits claim,...more
The proliferation of class action lawsuit and arbitration claim filings under the Federal Wiretap Act and various state wiretap statutes has recently grown beyond California, as other states are now beginning to see more...more
The pace of internet consumer privacy class action litigation is skyrocketing. Remarkably, no specific legislative change in the law triggered the increase in litigation. Instead, the driver of this litigation explosion — in...more
2022 has seen a new wave of class action lawsuits targeting companies that use technology to track consumers’ interfaces on their websites. These lawsuits generally allege that the use of technologies such as session replay...more
If your company has a website and does not disclose the use of session replay software or that the chats on its website are being transcribed, please read this important alert. ...more
The case of Popa v. Harriet Carter Gifts, Inc. “began with a quest for pet stairs.” Plaintiff Ashley Popa searched Harriet Carter Gifts’ website, added pet stairs to her cart, but never completed the purchase. During her...more
Attention Lead Generators. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that use of certain technologies on a websites in order to track and record web session data before obtaining affirmative consent may be a...more