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Mealey's Data Privacy

August 28, 2024
Federal Judge Grants Final Approval In Data Breach Class Action

LINCOLN. Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge dismissed a data security breach class action and issued final approval of a $850,000 class action settlement in a data security breach suit after determining that the settlement fairly and adequately represents the interests of the class members.
August 28, 2024
Judge Dismisses Putative Class Suit Over Alleged Data Breach For Lack Of Standing

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Granting dismissal of a putative class action against a private contractor over an alleged data breach, an Ohio federal judge said the plaintiff “has not adequately pleaded that any of his PII [personally identifiable information] was improperly accessed, let alone stolen.”
August 27, 2024
$725M Profile-Sharing Suit Settlement Is Fair, Facebook And Plaintiffs Tell Court

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook and plaintiffs who successfully reached a $725 million settlement agreement in a consolidated privacy class action over the sharing of Facebook users’ profiles with Cambridge Analytica urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reject the appeal of two objectors who argue that the settlement should be higher and the attorney fees greatly reduced.
August 26, 2024
Former Employees Reach Settlement With Philadelphia Inquirer Over Data Breach

PHILADELPHIA —Three employees or former employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC moved for preliminary approval of a $525,000 class action settlement reached with the newspaper to settle claims for damages caused by a data breach that the newspaper did not disclose to subscribers and employees for nearly a year.
August 22, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Data Theft Claims Against Auto Insurer

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 21 affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a putative class action brought against an auto insurer for failure to protect three individuals’ personal data, specifically their driver’s license numbers, from a hack of its online insurance quoting system, after finding that none of the appellants suffered an injury.
August 21, 2024
9th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment In Chrome Users’ Data Collection Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 20 reversed a California federal judge’s entry of summary judgment on claims brought by users of Google LLC’s web browser app Chrome for collecting their personally identifiable information (PII) allegedly in violation of privacy laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the District Court did not properly apply the “reasonable person” standard.
August 21, 2024
Sensitive Data Usage Case Against LinkedIn Survives Dismissal

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Department of Motor Vehicles is not a necessary party to a suit alleging that LinkedIn Corp. collected and used personal information, and the plaintiff adequately alleges that the social media company unlawfully read and used the information in marketing, a federal judge in California said in partially granting a motion to dismiss.
August 20, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Injunction Over 1st Amendment Issues With Online Privacy Act

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed in part a district court’s order granting a preliminary injunction to a trade association of online businesses in its suit challenging the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), which was enacted to provide online privacy protections for children under 18, finding that the association was likely to succeed in showing that the act’s requirement for covered businesses to opine on and reduce the risk of children’s exposure to possibly harmful material violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
August 19, 2024
After Jarkesy, FTC Seeks Dismissal Of Meta Claims Over Consent Order Changes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission and its three commissioners in their official capacities (FTC, collectively) filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia a renewed motion to dismiss due process, Article II of the U.S. Constitution and nondelegation claims by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.), following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in SEC v. Jarkesy and arguing that that opinion “has no bearing on” the claims in which Meta challenges the FTC’s revision of a 2020 $5 billion consent order that settled a privacy investigation.
August 16, 2024
Enzo Biochem Pays $4.5M To 3 States After Testing Lab Ransomware Attack

Enzo Biochem Inc. and subsidiary Enzo Clinical Labs Inc. (collectively, Enzo) have agreed to pay $4.5 million to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to settle attorney general investigations into an April 2023 ransomware attack, according to a company regulatory filing and the state prosecutors’ offices.
August 16, 2024
Class Action Under Utah Data Privacy Law Survives Retailer’s Dismissal Bid

SALT LAKE CITY — Finding that consumer plaintiffs have standing and have adequately alleged that a retailer violated Utah’s Notice of Intent to Sell Nonpublic Personal Information Act (NISNPIA) by disclosing their private purchase information to third parties, a federal judge in Utah denied the retailer’s motion to dismiss.
August 15, 2024
Magistrate Approves Fees In Data Breach Case Despite Initial, Inflated Calculation

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge in New York has granted a plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees and costs following a $626,985.58 settlement in litigation over a data breach, ruling that although the plaintiffs’ initial calculation was “inflated,” the fees sought were “reasonable” based on other factors including the value of the multiplier applied to a recalculated amount of hours and billing rates, often referred as a “lodestar.”
August 14, 2024
Data Breach Class Complaint Against Restaurant Group Sent Back To State Court

LOS ANGELES — A putative class complaint accusing Panda Restaurant Group Inc. of failing to have sufficient measures in place to protect customers’ personal data belongs in state court, a federal judge in California ruled, opining that even though the data breach affected the operator of more than 2,000 restaurants in 30 states, the plaintiff is free to limited his proposed class to California customers.
August 13, 2024
Planned Parenthood’s $6M Data Breach Class Settlement Granted Conditional Approval

LOS ANGELES — A California judge conditionally granted final approval of a $6 million settlement to be paid by Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA) to end a consolidated class complaint accusing the reproductive health care provider of failing to protect patients’ personally identifiable information and protected health information from being accessed and stolen.
August 13, 2024
Federal Judge Dismisses 1 CGL Insurer From Coverage Suit Over BIPA Violation Claim

CHICAGO — Per the parties’ stipulation, a federal judge in Illinois on Aug. 12 dismissed without prejudice the claims and counterclaims between an insured and one of its commercial general liability insurers in the insured’s lawsuit seeking a declaration as to coverage for an underlying putative class lawsuit alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA) by using biometric time clocks to track employee working hours.
August 12, 2024
Facebook To High Court: Risk Disclosure Statements Weren’t Misleading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The social media giant formerly known as Facebook Inc. told the U.S. Supreme Court in an Aug. 9 brief that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it held that the company issued misleading statements about the risk of potential misuse of user data because the company was aware that it had already occurred; Facebook argues that it disclosed all information required under federal securities laws.
August 09, 2024
Judge: Retailer Doesn’t Show Software Company’s Negligence For Data Breach

NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey said an online retailer’s breach of contract claims against an e-commerce software company stemming from a data breach survive the software company’s motion to dismiss, but the judge said the retailer failed to substantiate its negligence claims because it did not show it was owed a duty of reasonable care beyond what was included in the contract.
August 09, 2024
Judge: Biometric Data Claims Lacking In Illinois Suit Over AI Image Creation App

CHICAGO — A man’s mere belief that his photographs and other biometric information are included in datasets used to train a third-party artificial intelligence that powers an imaging rendering application does not state a claim, and the court lacks personal jurisdiction, a federal judge in Illinois said in dismissing the case.
August 09, 2024
TikTok Data Collection Claims Will Move Forward In California Federal Court

LOS ANGELES — A man who accessed an educational website that allegedly collected his personal information through software created by TikTok properly stated his data privacy claims against the website’s owner under California law, a California federal judge found in denying the owner’s motion to dismiss.
August 09, 2024
California Appeals Court: Minor Established Privacy Claims In Data Breach Suit

VENTURA, Calif. — A California appeals panel reversed a lower court’s decision to sustain a demurrer without leave to amend a putative class complaint brought by an 11-year-old who said an educational consulting company did not do enough to prevent his medical information from being accessed in a data breach, with the panel holding that the company is subject to two state data privacy acts.
August 07, 2024
$9.39M White Castle Finger Scan Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted final approval to a $9,394,440 settlement to be paid by White Castle System Inc. to end a class complaint by an employee who alleged that the fast food company’s finger scan policy violated the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
August 07, 2024
Memo On Student-Workers’ Rights Under NLRA, Privacy Rights Issued By NLRB

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Labor Relations Board general counsel issued a memo on Aug. 6 clarifying the obligations of colleges and universities under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) regarding the disclosure of student-worker information to labor unions and students’ privacy rights.
August 06, 2024
Officials: High Court Case Claiming Texas Drone Law Is Unconstitutional Fails

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Officials in a Texas municipality have filed an opposition brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that a petition for certiorari filed by a journalist and a photographer association, claiming that a Texas law that curbs the use of drones for aerial photography violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, should be denied because a lower court’s judgment, “although its reasoning is imperfect,” does not merit the Supreme Court’s attention.
August 05, 2024
DOJ Complaint Accuses ByteDance, TikTok Of Violating Children’s Privacy Laws

LOS ANGELES — The United States filed a complaint Aug. 2 in a federal court in California accusing TikTok Inc., ByteDance Ltd. and their affiliates of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and its implementing regulations as well as a 2019 court order by knowingly permitting children to create regular rather than “Kids Mode” TikTok accounts and to create, view and share videos and messages with adults.
August 05, 2024
Former Employees Say Philadelphia Inquirer Liable For Breach Of Records

PHILADELPHIA — In a consolidated putative class complaint filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, three employees or former employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC bring claims against the newspaper, saying it is liable for damages caused by a data breach the newspaper did not disclose to subscribers and employees for nearly a year.