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Mealey's Data Privacy

November 02, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Vizio’s 4th Amended Complaint On Other Grounds

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s dismissal of Vizio Inc.’s fourth amended complaint seeking coverage for an underlying $17 million settlement and defense costs arising from class claims alleging unauthorized collections of consumers’ television viewing data, finding that Vizio breached the insurance policy by not soliciting the excess insurer’s consent before settling the underlying lawsuit.
November 01, 2023
Employer Seeks Coverage For Class Action Suit Alleging BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — An employer sued its insurer in an Illinois federal court seeking commercial general liability and umbrella insurance coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by disseminating electronic information derived from the scanning of its employees’ biometric identifiers to third parties without their consent.
November 01, 2023
Judge Gives Initial OK To $62 Million Settlement Of Google Location History Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Following a hearing on a preliminary approval motion filed by the plaintiffs in a class action over Google Inc.’s practice of tracking users’ locations without consent, a California federal judge gave an initial thumbs-up to a proposed $62 million settlement of privacy and intrusion claims against the technology giant.
October 26, 2023
Cy Pres Firms Proposed In $62M Settlement Of Google Location History Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A month after moving for preliminary approval of a proposed $62 million settlement of location-tracking privacy class claims against Google Inc., the named plaintiffs filed a supplemental brief in California federal court enumerating 17 potential cy pres recipients of much of that fund.
October 26, 2023
Judge Allows Invasion Of Privacy Claim For Retailer’s Recording Of Customer Chats

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge refused to dismiss one count for invasion of privacy but dismissed the remainder of a consumer’s putative class claims against a retailer, including for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), based on the retailer using a third-party company to intercept, duplicate and analyze online chats on the retailer’s website between customers and company representatives.
October 26, 2023
Investors’ Suit Alleging Facebook Lied About User Data Partially Revived

SAN FRANCISCO — A split panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived some of the claims made by investors in a suit against the former Facebook Inc. alleging that the company misled investors about privacy and data protection, finding that the investors had adequately pleaded that news about Cambridge Analytica and a practice known as “whitelisting” had contributed to two stock drops in 2018.
October 25, 2023
COMMENTARY: Neurotechnology In The Workplace: A Futuristic Reality

By Jeremy Ben Merkelson, Wendy Kearns, Michael Borgia and Tanner Harris
October 25, 2023
Judge: Discovery Sought In Remanded WhatsApp Spyware Dispute Is Premature

OAKLAND, Calif. — In light of a pending dismissal motion and a lack of reciprocal discovery responses, a California federal judge on Oct. 24 denied an Israeli spyware firm’s request that WhatsApp Inc. be required to serve amended responses to its requests for admission (RFAs) in a lawsuit over alleged computer fraud.
October 25, 2023
Massachusetts Centralization Of MOVEit Data Breach Suits Confirmed By JPMDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation confirmed its decision to consolidate dozens of lawsuits related to breaches of the MOVEit app in Massachusetts federal court, finding that the actions “involve questions of fact that are common to the” suits.
October 20, 2023
Judge Denies Injunction In UCL Health Care Data Case Against Google

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Plaintiffs’ privacy and California unfair competition law (UCL) claims appear to turn on whether Google LLC simply acquires health information as a vendor or actually uses that data in some fashion, a federal judge said while concluding that the balance of hardships weighs against granting a motion for a preliminary injunction. In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Google’s own artificial intelligence suggested that Google’s collection of health data might run afoul of various laws.
October 20, 2023
Dollar General Will Pay $1M To Settle EEOC Disability Bias, GINA Lawsuit

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A variety store chain will pay $1 million and provide other relief to settle a case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a federal court in Alabama alleging that its hiring practices violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), the EEOC announced Oct. 20.
October 19, 2023
Google: UCL Plaintiffs Can’t Show Violations, Injury In Bard AI Chatbot Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Class action plaintiffs who complain that Google LLC trained artificial intelligence chatbot Bard on personal and copyrighted information trade “prolixity for precision,” fail to allege a privacy or property interest in material publicly posted on the internet and lack sufficient allegations that they read a privacy policy or can demonstrate an underlying statutory violation, the company says in a motion to dismiss unfair competition law (UCL), copyright and other claims filed in a California federal court.
October 19, 2023
$23 Million Google Referrer Header Privacy Suit Settlement Gets Final OK

SAN JOSE, Calif. — More than eight years after approving an initial $8.5 million settlement with Google LLC in a consolidated privacy class action that subsequently went to the U.S. Supreme Court and back, a California federal judge granted final approval to a revised settlement, now valued at $23 million, of claims over alleged data-sharing by the referrer headers associated with Google’s search engine.
October 17, 2023
Class Suit Accuses Medical Lab Of Disclosing Customers’ Data To Debt Collector

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California man filed a putative class complaint in a California court against a medical laboratory and a revenue services operator alleging that they unlawfully disclose customers’ sensitive medical data to debt collectors in violation of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA).
October 17, 2023
Credit Unions’ $28.5 Million Settlement Of Wawa Data Suit Preliminarily Approved

PHILADELPHIA — A year and a half after a Pennsylvania federal judge granted final approval to the consumer track in a consolidated class action over a 2019 data breach experienced by Wawa Inc., the judge granted a motion to preliminarily approve a proposed settlement between the convenience store chain and a track comprising financial institutions (FIs).
October 17, 2023
Tesla Owner, Minor Son Ordered To Arbitrate Claims Over Vehicle Video Access

SAN FRANCISCO — A Tesla Inc. customer and his minor son who filed a class complaint accusing the company of permitting employees to access, use and share video recordings and images of customers captured by vehicle cameras without customers’ consent must arbitrate their claims, a federal magistrate judge in California ruled, finding in part “that under the principles of equitable estoppel,” the son must abide by the agreement to which his father agreed.
October 17, 2023
Hershey’s Dismissal Motion Granted In Case Alleging Video Viewing Disclosures

SAN DIEGO — A chocolate manufacturer accused in a putative class complaint of disclosing user data of individuals who view a video on its website to a social media company has not been shown to be a videotape service provider, a federal judge in California ruled, granting the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss the single claim in the case brought under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) without leave to amend.
October 16, 2023
Government Wants More Time To Respond To X’s National Security Certiorari Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Filing a motion on behalf of U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its Director Christopher Wray on Oct. 13, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an extra month to respond to a petition for certiorari in which X. Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.) questions the constitutionality of being barred from disclosing certain information about its compliance with national security letters (NSLs) served on it by the FBI.
October 12, 2023
$725 Million Settlement Of Facebook Profile-Sharing Class Action Gets Final OK

SAN FRANCISCO — Six months after preliminarily approving a $725 million settlement between Meta Platforms Inc. and the social media users whose Facebook profiles were shared with an analytics company, a California federal judge granted final approval to the agreement, deeming it “fair, reasonable, and adequate and in the best interests of the Settlement Class Members.”
October 11, 2023
Mortgage Servicer Accuses Payment Processor Of Misusing Customer Data

DALLAS — A mortgage payment processor misused a mortgage servicer’s customer data when it conducted quality assurance (QA) testing with customers’ nonpublic, personal information while in a live production environment rather than a walled-off testing environment, the mortgage servicer alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas.
October 04, 2023
AI Health Care Company’s ‘Patient Stories’ Handling Led To Data Breach, Suit Says

BOSTON — An artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in health care “patient stories” failed to adequately secure the private health information it obtained, resulting in a data breach releasing patient medical records and other related information, a woman claims in a putative class action in Massachusetts federal court.
October 04, 2023
Consumer ‘Testers’ Voluntarily Dismiss VPPA Class Suit Against General Mills

LOS ANGELES — Two individuals who said they were genuine consumers of General Mills Inc.’s products and “testers” who “ensure that companies abide by” federal privacy laws when they filed a Video Protection Privacy Act (VPPA) class complaint against the consumer food company filed in a federal court in California a notice of voluntary dismissal.
September 28, 2023
Amazon Prime Users Did Not Establish Injury, Privacy Violation, Judge Rules

SEATTLE — Two Amazon Prime Video customers did not establish a concrete injury from the retaining of their personally identifiable information (PII) by Amazon.com Services LLC, a Washington federal judge ruled, granting the online retailer’s motion to dismiss putative class claims brought against it under video rental laws of New York and Minnesota.
September 28, 2023
Proposed Settlement Of Ring Privacy Lawsuit Provides Only Injunctive Relief

LOS ANGELES — The five remaining named plaintiffs in a putative privacy class action against Ring LLC filed a motion in California federal court seeking preliminary approval of an injunctive-relief-only settlement of contractual, negligence and unfair competition claims related to incidents of eavesdropping and data sharing in connection with Ring’s security camera products.
September 27, 2023
Final OK Of $23 Million Settlement Sought In Lengthy Google Referrer Header Row

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A privacy suit over the purported sharing of users’ search query terms by Google LLC, which dates back more than a decade, moved closer to settlement as the named plaintiffs moved in California federal court for final approval of a $23 million settlement that provides for direct payments to class members and injunctive relief requiring disclosures by Google.