Legal Alert | Wiretap Laws in the United States
Anti-Wiretap Class Actions Against Website Operators Surge, but Proper Consent Can Reduce Risk
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Rajaratnam Judge: Wiretaps in Insider Trading Cases are "Radical"
Frequent readers of this blog are aware of the surge in lawsuits alleging that companies illegally wiretap consumers when they utilize software which tracks consumers’ interactions on their websites. The majority of these...more
Chatbots are likely to lead to a new wave of class action lawsuits. This is how are we helping our clients get ready. Claims include: •Contemporaneous recording by the chat provider - •Chat provider uses the chat...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
Repurposing old laws to challenge new technologies has become the new normal in the privacy space. Plaintiffs continue to bring a kaleidoscope of privacy claims against companies in the tech age, reviving laws like the...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
It has now become commonplace for Plaintiffs’ attorneys to bring claims alleging that routine marketing techniques, including the deployment of behavioral advertising cookies and pixels, constitute wiretaps in violation of...more
The Biden administration announced this week that it expects to release guidance in the future regarding the use of chatbots on company websites. As part of the “Time is Money” initiative to improve and streamline consumer...more
Like many organizations, Peloton is facing a legal challenge under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) relating to the company’s alleged use of third-party technology on its website to intercept chat communications...more
Companies frequently wish to record telephone conversations related to their operations, customers, or business transactions. In response, the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures have enacted statutes and regulations...more
The latest developments under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and a recent wave of wiretapping class actions and arbitrations against website operators and third-party analytics companies are analyzed in a recent...more
A Pennsylvania federal court recently granted a retailer’s motion to dismiss claims that its use of “spy pixels” in its commercial e-mail constitutes illegal wiretapping. In Hartley v. Urban Outfitters, Inc., No....more
In 2023, we discussed the uptick in data privacy and cybersecurity class action lawsuits; as expected, this trend has persisted throughout 2024 as plaintiffs continue to test new theories of liability and the boundaries of...more
Pretrial detention imposes severe burdens on a defendant's ability to prepare for trial. One such burden is that the prosecution may receive, without a warrant, recordings of the defendant's electronic communications,...more
Social media usage remains ubiquitous in 2024, and a recent trend sees the increased use of social media by employees to document their experiences with layoffs and disciplinary actions in the workplace. ...more
Keypoint: Courts reject personal jurisdiction arguments and suggest the Shopify decision will be overturned; Courts continue to show differing approaches to VPPA claims at the pleading stage with a large VPPA class action...more
Readers of this blog are familiar with the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), and the systematic transformation of CIPA wiretapping cases since their inception. Applying CIPA, a Washington State federal court...more
Readers of this blog likely know about the wave of consumer privacy litigation directed at online companies’ collection of consumer data. A litany of these cases are brought by Swigart Law Group, APC (“Swigart Law”), a law...more
Businesses operating public facing websites that employ data analytics software to track users’ website interactions must be aware of a novel use of the California Information Privacy Act (“CIPA”) that has taken the...more
Keypoint: The Central District of California issued several wiretapping decisions in May while two decisions on the VPPA illustrate how claims fail or succeed at the pleading stage. Welcome to the fourteenth installment in...more
As an onslaught of recent class actions allege, companies may be liable for eavesdropping and wiretapping based on the use of common analytics software on their platforms. For instance, in California, plaintiffs have filed...more
Central District of California dismisses lawsuit alleging that a third-party’s interception of communications over a website’s live chat feature violated California’s wiretapping and eavesdropping prohibitions. ...more
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) has struck again, this time with the help of a Title III wiretap. ...more