Mealey's Data Privacy : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Data Privacy

June 25, 2024
Judge Vacates HHS Rule Over Health Care Providers’ Use Of Tracking Technology

FORT WORTH, Texas — A standard established in two recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services subagency bulletins for determining when online tracking technology has gathered internet users’ individually identifiable health information (IIHI) in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was vacated by a Texas federal judge, who found that the guidance exceeded HHS’s authority under HIPAA and ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
June 24, 2024
Judge Won’t Dismiss Hunter Biden’s Lawsuit Against Poster Of Laptop Files

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied an activist and his organization’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the son of President Joseph R. Biden for allegedly violating computer fraud laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by posting data from his personal electronic devices online and creating a searchable database of its content.
June 21, 2024
Stalking Victims Defend UCL Claims Against Apple Over AirTag Use

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of putative class plaintiffs who claim that Apple Inc.’s “AirTag” tracking devices were used to stalk them oppose Apple Inc.’s motion to dismiss their second amended complaint (SAC), asserting that they have cured pleading deficiencies identified by a California federal court and have sufficiently alleged injury under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and established that California law applies to both in-state and out-of-state plaintiffs.
June 21, 2024
Golden Corral Employees File Consolidated Complaint Over 2023 Data Breach

RALEIGH, N.C. — One month after six lawsuits against Golden Corral Corp. were consolidated in North Carolina federal court, a group of its present and former employees on June 20 filed a consolidated complaint alleging that the restaurant chain acted negligently by not properly protecting their personally identifiable information (PII) from a data breach that they assert could have been avoided if the company had employed proper security measures.
June 21, 2024
Judge Allows Minors’ Data Collection Claims Against Google And Subsidiaries

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge denied Google LLC and its advertising subsidiaries’ motion to dismiss a nationwide putative class action brought against them by minors for collecting their personal data before the age of 13 in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other states’ consumer protection laws.
June 19, 2024
Judge Rejects AI Hiring Firm’s Attack On Class Jurisdiction Ruling

CHICAGO — An artificial intelligence hiring platform’s contacts in Illinois satisfy Ford Motor Co. v. Mont. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct. and provide for jurisdiction in the state, a federal judge said June 18 in denying a motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying a motion to dismiss.
June 19, 2024
Star Tribune’s $2.9M Video Privacy Protection Act Class Settlement Granted Final OK

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota granted final approval of a $2.9 million settlement to be paid by Star Tribune Media Co. LLC to end class claims alleging that it violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) when it shared its website subscribers’ video viewing history with Facebook.
June 18, 2024
AI Identification Of Child Pornography At Issue In Police Search Case

WAUKESHA, Wis. — An internet company’s artificial intelligence’s flagging of a social media video as suspected child pornography didn’t give a detective sufficient grounds to view the video, and a judge properly excluded the resulting search of a cellphone, a criminal defendant tells a Wisconsin appellate court in defending exclusion of the evidence against him.
June 17, 2024
Plaintiffs Won’t Amend Privacy Action Involving ChatGPT After Dismissal

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs confronted with a court ruling finding their privacy and California unfair competition law (UCL) action involving artificial intelligence raises policy concerns more appropriate in a town hall than a courtroom told a federal judge in California on June 14 that they will not amend their complaint and asked the court to close the case.
June 10, 2024
High Court Grants Facebook Cert Bid To Consider Disclosure Requirements

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 10 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari from the social media giant formerly known as Facebook Inc., agreeing to consider whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals widened a circuit split when it found that publicly traded companies must disclose that risks materialized in the past even if the risks do not continue to have the potential to harm investors.
June 10, 2024
Delaware Vice Chancellor: Shareholder Does Not Show Presuit Demand Was Futile

WILMINGTON, Del. — A vice chancellor in the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a shareholder’s derivative complaint alleging that a telecommunications company failed to prevent its parent company’s alleged scheme to centralize customer data to train artificial intelligence must be dismissed, finding that the shareholder failed to show that making a demand on the board would have been futile.
June 07, 2024
High Court Wants Officials’ Response To Petition Over Texas Drone Use Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court requested a response from three Texas officials, two of whom had previously opted against filing opposition briefs, to a petition for certiorari in which a journalist and a photographer association claim that a Texas law that curbs the use of drones for aerial photography violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
June 06, 2024
Defendants In MOVEit Data Breach MDL File Dismissal Arbitration Motions

BOSTON — Two groups of defendants in the ever-growing multidistrict litigation over the theft of personally identifiable information (PII) from users of MOVEit software filed motions asking a Massachusetts federal court to, respectively, compel arbitration from consumers that purportedly agreed to such provisions and dismiss individual suits that they say should never have been consolidated under the home-state exception to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
June 06, 2024
Judge: Amazon Immune From Workers’ Temperature Scan Class Suit Under PREP Act

CHICAGO — A warehouse worker’s putative class complaint accusing her employer of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by scanning workers’ temperatures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was terminated by a federal magistrate judge in Illinois who found that the employer was entitled to statutory immunity based on the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
June 03, 2024
$8M Data Breach Class Settlement By Law Firm Preliminarily Approved

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on May 31 preliminarily approved an $8 million class global settlement to be paid by a law firm after its network was breached and the personal identifiable information (PII) of more than 630,000 individuals was potentially accessed.
May 31, 2024
Putative Class Suit Filed Against Ticketmaster For Hack Of 560M Customers’ Data

LOS ANGELES — Two consumers filed a putative class action in California federal court against Ticketmaster LLC and Live Nation Entertainment Inc. accusing them of negligence and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) for not protecting the data of approximately 560 million customers that was allegedly stolen from its servers in a recent hack.
May 30, 2024
Judge Certifies Privacy, Publicity Rights Class Action Against Data Aggregator

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on May 29 granted a group of plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class action against a personal information data-aggregator website on behalf of two statewide classes accusing the company of violating plaintiffs’ rights of publicity and against misappropriation of name and likeness and denied the parties’ competing motions to exclude each other’s experts.
May 29, 2024
Dating App User Dismisses Biometric Data Collection Class Suit After Settlement

CHICAGO — A dating application user and the companies associated with the operation of the app filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal without prejudice of the user’s putative class complaint under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA); the filing in a federal court in Illinois came approximately three months after the parties stated that they reached a settlement.
May 23, 2024
6 Golden Corral Data Breach Suits Consolidated In North Carolina Federal Court

RALEIGH, N.C. — Citing “judicial economy” and avoiding “the risk of inconsistent rulings,” a North Carolina federal judge granted a motion to consolidate six putative negligence class actions over a 2023 data breach experienced by Golden Corral Corp., which exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of the buffet restaurant chain’s employees.
May 14, 2024
COMMENTARY: The Risk In Disclosing Risk Factors

By Jordan Eth and Jocelyn Greer
May 22, 2024
Judge Gives Final OK To $1.5 Million Settlement Of College Data Breach Suit

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge granted final approval of the settlement of a consolidated negligence class action over a data breach experienced by a college in 2022, deeming the $1.5 million agreement to be “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”
May 21, 2024
Objectors Appeal Final Approval Of Google Location History Settlement

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Three class members who had previously objected to the cy pres nature of a $62 million settlement of a consolidated class action over the purported collection of users’ location data by Google Inc., as well as an accompanying attorney fees award, on May 20 filed notice that they are appealing the final approval of the settlement and the corresponding judgment of a California federal court to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
May 21, 2024
7th Circuit Affirms Court In Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violation Claims

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s rulings in a coverage dispute arising from claims that the insured violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that an umbrella insurance policy provides for defense and indemnity for the insured only after its underlying insurance and deductibles are exhausted.
May 21, 2024
Judge Preliminarily OKs $2.4 Million Settlement Of Suit Over Lender’s Data Breach

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Less than three months after consolidating six lawsuits over a financial services firm’s November data breach, a Connecticut federal judge granted preliminary approval to a settlement that establishes a $2.45 million fund to settle negligence and contractual claims against the lender.
May 20, 2024
Insureds To Address Class Exclusion, Diversity In Removed Data Breach Suits

MADISON, Wis. — The parties in seven putative class actions over a 2024 data breach experienced by a health insurance provider were directed by a Wisconsin federal judge to file briefs addressing several issues related to whether the lawsuits were properly removed from state court and whether they should be consolidated in federal court.