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Mealey's Data Privacy

  • April 26, 2023

    Judge Remands Data-Sharing Class Claims Against Medical Center To State Court

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a plaintiff’s motion to remand his putative class action against a health care provider for allegedly invading his privacy and violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using various tracking tools in its website and app to state court after the judge rejected the provider’s argument that federal directives regarding online patient access create “federal officer jurisdiction.”

  • April 26, 2023

    Lawyer Files Class Claims Against ABA After Hacking Incident Is Announced

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A member of the American Bar Association (ABA) sued the organization in New York federal court just days after it was announced that a hacker had breached its network and gained access to some information of ABA members.

  • April 26, 2023

    Hospital Data Breach Plaintiffs Seek To Appeal Denial Of Remand Motion

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The plaintiffs in five consolidated putative class actions over a Florida hospital’s 2021 data breach filed a status report informing a Florida federal judge of their intention to appeal his recent denial of their motion to remand the individual cases to state court.

  • April 24, 2023

    Illinois High Court: LMRA Preempts Worker’s Hand Scan Biometric Privacy Claims

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Because a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) governed the method a university’s employees clocked in and out of work, the Illinois Supreme Court found that a former employee’s putative class claims over the use of his hand scan under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA).

  • April 20, 2023

    Divided 9th Circuit Panel Affirms No Arbitration In Amazon Wiretapping Class Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Without proof that it notified drivers of a new Terms of Service Agreement (TOS) in 2019, Amazon.com Inc.’s arbitration motion in a putative class complaint alleging that it monitored communications by drivers on a private Facebook page is subject to 2016 TOS with an arbitration clause that did not encompass such actions, a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 19.

  • April 17, 2023

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Tortured Chinese Activist’s Hacked Emails Lawsuit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a Chinese pro-democracy activist’s lawsuit against two Yahoo! Inc. successor entities and two former Yahoo executives accusing them of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the Alien Torts Statute (ATS) by sharing his emails with Chinese officials and causing his imprisonment and torture.

  • April 14, 2023

    McDonald’s Granted Protective Order In AI Voiceprint Class Lawsuit

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on April 13 granted a motion for a protective order sought by McDonald’s Corp. in a putative class complaint alleging that the franchisor violates Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting voiceprints to place drive-through orders.

  • April 13, 2023

    Judge: Reconsideration Not Vehicle To Challenge Agency Asbestos Testimony Ruling

    MISSOULA, Mont. — The correct way to challenge an order compelling testimony from government agencies is by moving to quash the subpoenas and not in a motion for reconsideration of the ruling ordering the testimony, a federal judge in Montana said in a False Claims Act (FCA) case involving asbestos-related Medicare claims filed under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program.

  • April 12, 2023

    Tesla Hit With Class Suit Alleging Employees Access, Share Images And Videos

    SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Inc. employees access, use and share video recordings and images of customers captured by vehicle cameras without customers’ consent, one customer alleges in a class complaint filed in a federal court in California.

  • April 11, 2023

    COVID-19 Contact Tracing Data Breach Class Settlement Approved

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted final approval of a class settlement under which an employment staffing company accused of failing to safeguard private health information (PHI) contained in Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 contact tracing lists will provide monetary payments for out-of-pocket expenses and two years of credit monitoring and credit restoration protections.

  • April 10, 2023

    Judge Denies CGL Insurer’s Summary Judgment Motion As Moot After Settlement Reached

    CHICAGO — Following a joint status report indicating the settlement of a coverage dispute over underlying claims that a family-owned and operated grocery store chain violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, a federal judge in Illinois denied the commercial general liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment as moot and gave the parties until April 14 to file a status report or a notice of dismissal.

  • April 07, 2023

    Biometric Privacy Claims Over NBA Video Game May Proceed Against Amazon

    SEATTLE — Adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, a Washington federal judge ruled that a plaintiff sufficiently alleges violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by the provision of cloud computing services by Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) to a video game company that incorporates users’ facial scans into a basketball video game, leading her to deny the tech firm’s year-old motion to dismiss the putative class complaint.

  • April 06, 2023

    Washington Supreme Court Refuses To Review T-Mobile Data Breach Coverage Suit

    OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Supreme Court denied an insurer’s petition to review an appellate court’s ruling in favor of T-Mobile USA Inc. in a coverage dispute arising from a data privacy breach incurred by one of T-Mobile’s vendors, refusing to disturb the court’s finding that T-Mobile’s $17.3 million loss from the breach exceeded its self-insured retention obligation under the policy.

  • April 05, 2023

    Illinois Panel Partly Reverses No Coverage Ruling In Suit Over BIPA Violation Claims

    CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals panel held that a lower court erred in denying coverage for the claims expenses that an insured incurred in defending against an underlying lawsuit based on claims that the insured unlawfully collected the underlying plaintiffs' fingerprints, partly reversing and remanding for the lower court to determine the insured’s underlying claims.

  • April 04, 2023

    Google Sanctioned $79,000 For Untimely Disclosure In Chrome Data-Tracking Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nine days after a California federal magistrate judge issued a pair of discovery orders in two consolidated putative class actions over Google LLC’s purported collection of data from users of its Chrome web browser, redacted versions were filed of orders granting the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions and granting Google’s motion for relief regarding preservation.

  • April 04, 2023

    Apple, Stalking Victims Seek Stay, Mediation In AirTags Privacy Class Action

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Even though the presiding California federal judge denied their motion to stay proceedings in a putative class action focusing on alleged piracy violations and stalking facilitation by Apple Inc.’s AirTags, the plaintiffs and the company in a jointly filed case management statement continue to stress their desire for a stay of six months while they pursue mediation.

  • March 31, 2023

    Equifax MDL Law Firm Ends Suit Over Attorney Fees, Pursues 11th Circuit Appeal

    ATLANTA — Complying with a Georgia federal judge’s order, a law firm that was involved with the multidistrict litigation over the 2017 Equifax Inc. data breach filed a notice confirming that it had dismissed a Tennessee state court lawsuit in which it sought compensation for its purportedly inadequate share of the now-settled MDL’s attorney fees award.

  • March 30, 2023

    $725 Million Settlement Of Facebook Profile-Sharing MDL Receives Initial Approval

    SAN FRANCISCO — A proposed $725 million settlement of the Facebook user profile sharing multidistrict litigation satisfies the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, a California federal judge ruled March 29, granting a motion to preliminarily approve the largest-of-its-kind settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.).

  • March 29, 2023

    Magistrate Dismisses Suit Against Google For Remote Schooling Hack During COVID-19

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge on March 27 dismissed with leave to amend a lawsuit brought against Google LLC and a local school district by a minor child through his guardians ad litem for allegedly invading his privacy through a Google platform the child was required to use during COVID-19-related school closures and for failing to prevent a hack of the child’s computer device, which resulted in sexually explicit content being sent to the child’s teacher.

  • March 27, 2023

    Marriott Opposes Discovery Report And Recommendation In Data Breach Class Action

    GREENBELT, Md. — The discovery production recommended by a Maryland federal magistrate judge would encompass documents that were not used in its valuation of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) that was stolen in a 2014 data breach, Marriott International Inc. argues, asking a trial court to sustain its objection to the magistrate’s report and recommendation.

  • March 24, 2023

    Parties To Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case Call Government Testimony Critical

    MISSOULA, Mont. — Agents of the United States are the only ones capable of answering questions critical to a False Claims Act (FCA) case involving asbestos-related Medicare claims created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), parties to the suit told a federal judge in Montana, urging him to affirm a decision that the government must produce witnesses and to ignore a motion for reconsideration.

  • March 23, 2023

    Adult Son Substituted As Plaintiff In Fingerprint Class Suit After Death

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A deceased plaintiff’s adult son “is a proper representative to prosecute” his claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a federal judge in Illinois ruled March 22, finding that the claim survives the plaintiff’s death.

  • March 23, 2023

    Google Must Give Expert Confidential Documents In Location-Tracking Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A group of plaintiffs suing Google LLC for privacy violations related to the purported surreptitious gathering of their location information data prevailed in a discovery matter, with a California federal magistrate judge ordering the technology giant to turn over a collection of confidential documents to the plaintiffs’ expert witness.

  • March 22, 2023

    Discovery Stayed In Uber Drivers’ Biometric Privacy Suit Against Microsoft

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by Microsoft Corp. to stay discovery proceedings until the resolution of its motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) brought by former drivers with Uber Technologies Inc. related to a facial recognition app, with the judge finding that there would be little harm to the drivers and predicting that the arbitration motion would be resolved quickly.

  • March 21, 2023

    Job Applicant May Sue Firm For Damages, Not Injunction After Data Breach

    MADISON, Wis. — Mostly granting a trucking firm’s motion to dismiss a putative class action over a 2021 data breach, a Wisconsin federal judge found that a job applicant had standing to bring a negligence claim based on his mitigation efforts to stave off potential identity theft while disposing of the rest of the claims for lack of standing to sue for injunctive relief.

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