Mealey's Data Privacy
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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March 13, 2023
United States Seeks Reconsideration Of Libby, Mont., Asbestos Deposition Ruling
MISSOULA, Mont. — The United States has asked for leave to file a motion for reconsideration, telling a federal judge in Montana that having two agencies appear for deposition in a dispute over fraud claims stemming from asbestos-related Medicare claims related to Libby, Mont., would require marshalling numerous individuals from several different agencies and asking them to duplicate already performed work without any likelihood of producing relevant evidence.
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March 13, 2023
Meta Seeks Relation Of Another Case In Growing Pixel Health Data Gathering Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — In a March 10 motion, Meta Platforms Inc. asks a California federal court to relate an 11th case with 10 already related cases in which patients of various hospitals and medical facilities have brought suit against the Facebook operator for purportedly installing its Pixel tool on the health care facilities’ respective online patient portals, thereby allowing it to surreptitiously collect patients’ protected health information (PHI).
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March 08, 2023
Duty To Preserve Argued In Google Chrome Data Collection Suits
SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a joint submission, Google LLC and a group of plaintiffs alleging privacy violations in Google’s Chrome web browser tell a California federal court their divergent views on whether the defendant was obligated to preserve and submit mapping and linking tables about which the parties dispute the relevance to the litigation.
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March 07, 2023
9th Circuit: National Security Bars Twitter’s Surveillance Transparency Report
SEATTLE — More than a year and a half after hearing oral arguments in a dispute over whether Twitter Inc.’s free speech rights were violated when the Federal Bureau of Investigation forbade it from releasing an unredacted report on its compliance with government surveillance activities, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority on March 6 affirmed a trial court’s finding that the narrowly tailored redactions were appropriate in light of the government’s compelling national security interest.
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March 06, 2023
Meta Opposes New Mexico’s Intervention In Profile Sharing MDL Settlement
SAN FRANCISCO — New Mexico is not entitled to participate in the preliminary approval hearing for the proposed $725 million settlement of the multidistrict litigation regarding the 2015 Facebook user profile-sharing incident, Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) argues in a brief in California federal court opposing the state’s motion to intervene, contending that any “preclusive effect” the settlement might have upon a parallel suit should be addressed by the New Mexico state court where it is pending.
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February 28, 2023
Supreme Court Hears Arguments About Federal Identity Theft Statute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In oral arguments Feb. 28, the U.S. Supreme Court justices raised questions and concerns about vagueness, due process and interpretation as they examined the federal aggravated identity theft statute in the context of a psychologist convicted of health care fraud, with some of the justices opining that the statute broadly encompasses actions that would not typically be considered identity theft.
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February 24, 2023
Amici Warn Of Fallout From SEC’s Subpoena Of Privileged Materials From Covington
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Responding to a District of Columbia federal judge’s order to show cause, four amicus curiae briefs were submitted condemning the Securities and Exchange Commission for its subpoena seeking client lists from law firm Covington & Burling LLP and warning of harmful consequences to the attorney-client privilege.