A California appellate panel affirmed the decertification of a class of consumers in a Song-Beverly Credit Card Act lawsuit challenging Williams-Sonoma’s collection of zip codes and email addresses during credit card sales. ...more
Privacy Tidbits to start your week - The Risk-Benefit Analysis of BYOD: As we have written in the past, the proliferation of the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend is a high-wire balancing act for IT and...more
A Friendly Reminder from the FTC: You May Be in Trouble - Continuing the countdown to the effective date of the amended Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule, the Federal Trade Commission sent “educational...more
In This Issue: - Data-Breach Class Actions After the Supreme Court Decision in Clapper - California Supreme Court Holds That Song-Beverly Credit Card Act Does Not Apply to Online Purchases -...more
Earlier this month, we reported on the privacy case against craft giant Michaels Stores in which the plaintiff alleged that Michaels illegally collected zip codes during credit card transactions. The case was ultimately...more
In a recent decision, Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that zip codes are “personal identification information” and that a merchant asking for that information during a credit card...more
In a recent ruling arising from certain certified questions in Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc., Civ. No. 11-10920-WGY (D. Mass. Jan. 6, 2012, the Massachusetts Supreme Court interpreted “personal identification information”...more
In This Issue: Marc Roth and Lindsay Conner to Serve as Faculty for PLI Information Technology Law Institute 2013; Data Security, Emerging Tech to Be Focus for FTC; Mobile Payment Services Subject of New FTC Report;...more
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued an opinion holding that zip codes “may well qualify” as personally identifiable information under the Massachusetts law controlling the treatment of PII in credit...more
In a decision last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that zip codes are personally identifiable information, perhaps serving as a harbinger for other state court decisions still yet to come. This ruling is important...more
Massachusetts appears to have followed California’s lead in opening a litigation floodgate over ZIP code collection at the point of sale. In 2011, the California Supreme Court held in Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores, Inc.,...more
“May I have your zip code?” is an all-too-familiar question that may be going the way of the dinosaur in Massachusetts. Many retailers commonly ask customers for their zip codes when processing credit card transactions at,...more
Yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) ruled that zip codes constitute “personal identification information” under G.L. c. 93. The question of law came to the SJC from the U.S. District Court for...more