Mealey's Data Privacy
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January 07, 2021
Some Class Claims Over Convenience Store Chain’s Data Breach Dismissed
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Granting in part a motion to dismiss a putative class complaint over a data breach experienced by the Rutter’s convenience store chain, a Pennsylvania federal judge on Jan. 5 found that two of the four named plaintiffs lacked standing for failure to plead a concrete injury, while also disposing of negligence per se and consumer protection claims.
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January 06, 2021
Zoom Users Defend Privacy Claims Over Intrusions, Data Sharing
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Citing what they call “ultra-lax security and privacy practices” of Zoom Video Communications Inc., a group of plaintiffs suing the tech firm for various privacy violations related to its videoconferencing platform brief tell a California federal court in a Dec. 30 brief that their class complaint should survive dismissal because they “fully allege that Zoom disclosed their” personally identifiable information (PII) to third parties.
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December 22, 2020
COMMENTARY: 2020 Cyber And Privacy Coverage – A Year In Review
By Scott M. Seaman and Judith A. Selby
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January 05, 2021
IT Company Named In Shareholder Stock-Drop Suit Over Russian Hacking Ploy
SAN ANTONIO — An information technology (IT) company and two of its senior executives misled investors about certain cybersecurity vulnerabilities with the company’s monitoring products in violation of federal securities laws that allowed possible Russian government hacking of U.S. Department of Treasury and Commerce emails, a shareholder alleges in a Jan. 4 securities class action filed in Texas federal court.
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January 05, 2021
ADT’s Dismissal Motion Largely Denied In Suit Over Employee’s Privacy Breach
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Dec. 30 granted a dismissal motion as to two of eight claims brought by a consumer in her class complaint against ADT LLC after the security company revealed that that an employee had viewed and downloaded security camera footage from hundreds of Texas customers’ homes.
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January 04, 2021
Supporting Facebook In High Court, Amici Defend ‘Common’ Webpage Loading Practice
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Dec. 28 brief supporting a petition for certiorari by Facebook Inc., four amici curiae tell the U.S. Supreme Court that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ revival of Wiretap Act claims over Facebook’s purported tracking of users’ activity on third-party webpages “threatens to criminalize computer-to-computer communications that are common and fundamental to the operation of modern webpages.”
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December 22, 2020
Rehab Worker’s Privacy Not Violated By Surveillance Video, Georgia High Court Says
ATLANTA — A rehabilitation center employee had no expectation of privacy in a patient’s room, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Dec. 21, affirming a trial court’s denial of her motion to suppress the video from a surveillance camera that led to her being indicted for neglecting an elderly patient (Wanda Nuckles v. Georgia, No. S20G0492, Ga. Sup., 2020 Ga. LEXIS 927).
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December 16, 2020
Nursing Home Workers’ Biometric Privacy Suit To Remain In Federal Court
EAST ST. LOUIS — A group of former employees of a nursing home chain saw their bid to remand their putative class complaint alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) denied on Dec. 14 by an Illinois federal judge who found that federal subject matter jurisdiction existed under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) and the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA).
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December 16, 2020
Plaintiffs Challenging Contact Tracing Order Opt Against Amending Their Complaint
LOS ANGELES — Three weeks after a California federal judge dismissed their constitutional claims over a Los Angeles contact tracing order, a restaurant and a private citizen who sued the health officer who issued the order filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of their claims on Dec. 6 rather than amending their complaint (Miura Corp., et al. v. Muntu Davis, M.D., M.P.H., No. 20-5497, C.D. Calif.).
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December 16, 2020
Banking Regulators Must Provide Some Documents In Capital One Data Breach Suit
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After a thorough in camera review of documents withheld from discovery by two banking regulatory entities under the bank examination privilege, a Virginia federal magistrate judge on Dec. 10 ordered the regulators to submit some of the many documents sought by the plaintiffs in a consolidated class action over a 2019 data breach experienced by Capital One Financial Corp. (In re Capital One Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 19-2915, E.D. Va.).
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December 15, 2020
Investor Claims In Twitter Stock-Drop Suit Fall Short Of Pleading Standards
OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Dec. 12 ruled that lead plaintiffs in a securities class action lawsuit against social media platform Twitter Inc. and two of its senior executives failed to plead any materially false or misleading statements in alleging that the defendants misrepresented that improvements made to the company’s mobile application promotion (MAP) advertising product would generate more revenue for the company in violation of federal securities laws (In re Twitter Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 19-7149, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232586).
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December 15, 2020
Policyholders Say New Law Does Not Affect Data Breach Claims Against Insurer
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of policyholders argue in a Dec. 11 supplemental brief in District of Columbia federal court that the newly enacted Security Breach Protection Act of 2020 does not negatively affect their claims over a 2014 data breach experienced by their insurer, stating that the new District of Columbia statute updates data breach notification requirements but does not negate any of their claims (Chantal Attias, et al. v. CareFirst Inc., et al., No. 15-882, D. D.C.).
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December 15, 2020
Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Alleging Insurer Improperly Disclosed Information
CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals court on Dec. 4 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in an insured’s lawsuit alleging that the insurer violated common and statutory law by making improper disclosures of her information, finding that none of the insured’s claims alleges improper disclosures that were unnecessary under state law or the insurance policy (Susan S. Barron v. Great American Assurance Company, et al., Nos. 18-2353 and 19-0656, Ill. App., 1st Dist., 4th Div., 2020 Ill. App. Unpub. LEXIS 2086).
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December 14, 2020
Facebook Directed To Provide Deposition Witnesses On Data Use, Monetization
SAN FRANCISCO — Noting the need for guidance to properly tailor ongoing discovery in a consolidated class action over Facebook Inc.’s sharing of users’ profile data with third-party app developers, a California federal magistrate judge on Dec. 11 directed the social network operator to provide deposition witnesses on the topics of the collection and monetization of user data (In re Facebook Inc., Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, No. 18-md-2843, N.D. Calif.).
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December 11, 2020
Illinois Woman Tells Court Shutterfly’s Face Scanning Violates Biometrics Law
CHICAGO — Opposing a motion to dismiss by Shutterfly Inc., one of two named plaintiffs in a putative class complaint against the company filed a brief in Illinois federal court on Dec. 7 asserting that Shutterfly’s facial scanning feature violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) because it obtains individuals’ biometric identifiers without their consent (Vernita Miracle-Pond, et al. v. Shutterfly Inc., No. 1:19-cv-04722, N.D. Ill.).
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December 10, 2020
9th Circuit Revives ACA, Unfair Competition Law Claims In HIV Drug Spat
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit on Dec. 9 said that while the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) does not create a health care-specific discrimination standard, allegations that an insurer improperly limited HIV drug purchasers’ access to critical care by requiring mail order and pick up services meet the applicable standard and also keeps a California unfair competition law claim alive (John Doe One, et al. v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., et al., No. 19-15074, 9th Cir.).
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December 09, 2020
Frye Genetic Test Hearing Kicks Off In Illinois Mesothelioma Case
CHICAGO — Genes alone cause up to 10 percent of all cancers, and a women’s medical history suggests an inherited cause of her mesothelioma, mandating full genetic testing, an asbestos defendant told an Illinois judge at the start of a Dec. 9 Frye hearing. But the plaintiff argued that the blood test is invasive and that testing the woman’s entire genetic line was a fishing expedition in light of the well-known role a single gene — BAP-1 — can play (Cynthia B. Cowger v. Qualitex Co., No. 2018-L-012099, Ill. Cir., Cook Co.).
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December 04, 2020
In FOIA Suit, ACLU Seeks Info On Cell Phone Data Use In Immigration Enforcement
NEW YORK — Citing information culled from “[m]ultiple news sources,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint against three federal government agencies in New York federal court on Dec. 2 to obtain information about their “purchase of access to databases containing precise” cell phone location information (CPLI) “for millions of people” that the organization says are used “for immigration enforcement and other purposes” (American Civil Liberties Union v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., No. 1:20-cv-10083, S.D. N.Y.).
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December 03, 2020
Facebook Appeals Wiretap Act Lawsuit To The U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Nov. 20 petition for certiorari, Facebook Inc. faults the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for reviving a class claim against it under the Wiretap Act, arguing that because it provided content to websites that feature its plug-ins, it was a party to related communications and, therefore, did not wrongly intercept any communications under the statute (Facebook Inc. v. Perrin Aikens Davis, et al., No. 20-727, U.S. Sup.).
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November 24, 2020
Suit Over Los Angeles Contact Tracing Rule Dismissed For Lack Of Standing
LOS ANGELES — A restaurant and a private citizen who sued the health officer for Los Angeles County over a contact tracing order that was enacted for the purpose of combatting COVID-19 saw their complaint alleging constitutional violations dismissed on Nov. 16 by a California federal judge, who found that the plaintiffs did not establish standing to bring their claims (Miura Corp., et al. v. Muntu Davis, M.D., M.P.H., No. 20-5497, C.D. Calif.).