Plaintiff’s firms continue to file variations of state law wiretapping lawsuits over “session replay” software and “live chat” or “chatbot” applications in various jurisdictions.
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California Passes New Digital Privacy Law
On October 8, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The law requires police to obtain a warrant before accessing an individual’s private electronic information. …
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California Attorney General’s Settlement with Houzz Inc. Requires Company to Hire CPO
On October 2, 2015, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced that her office settled a lawsuit against an online home design company, Houzz Inc., stemming from allegations that the company impermissibly recorded phone calls without appropriately notifying the parties to the calls.
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Obama Administration Considering Electronic Surveillance Proposal to Address “Going Dark” Problem
The Obama Administration is finalizing its review of a statutory electronic surveillance proposal initially developed by the FBI to address concerns regarding the widening gap between law enforcement agencies’ legal authority to intercept electronic communications and their practical ability to actually obtain the information.
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Supreme Court Finds Lack of Standing to Challenge Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in a FISA case is likely to have a significant impact on privacy and data breach-related class actions, possibly thwarting the ability of individuals affected by breaches to assert standing based on a fear of possible future harm.
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Online Tracking Practices Face Increasing Scrutiny
Over the past several weeks, online tracking practices involving the use of Flash cookies and ETags have been the subject of new research studies, class action lawsuits and significant media attention.
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Appeals Court Finds Employee Who Auto-Forwarded Supervisor’s Emails Violated Wiretap Act
The Seventh Circuit recently rejected a defendant’s argument that the Wiretap Act applies only to emails “in flight” as opposed to communications at rest or in storage.
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Privacy Settings on Social Networking Sites May Determine Protection Under Stored Communications Act
A federal district court in California recently quashed a civil subpoena for private messages sent through Facebook and MySpace, but found that more evidence regarding the plaintiff’s privacy settings was needed to determine whether his wall posts and comments should be similarly protected.
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Supreme Court Sets Oral Argument in Quon v. Arch Wireless for April 19, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court has set oral argument for April 19, 2010, to review the Ninth Circuit’s 2008 decision on employee privacy in Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. Although Quon concerns the scope of privacy rights afforded to public employees under the Fourth Amendment, the case also has forced private employers to renew their focus on ensuring robust and consistent enforcement of employee monitoring policies. Unlike government employers, private employers are not subject to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures; instead, they must comply with federal wiretap statutes and state law. In practice, however, the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test courts apply to state common law privacy claims that govern private employers is virtually identical to the Fourth Amendment test. Accordingly, the Supreme Court’s review of the Constitutional test likely will affect how courts view privacy claims brought against private employers.
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Continue Reading Supreme Court Sets Oral Argument in Quon v. Arch Wireless for April 19, 2010
Supreme Court to Address Employee Privacy
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will review the Ninth Circuit’s 2008 decision on employee privacy in Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. In Quon, the Ninth Circuit considered whether the Ontario, California police department and the City of Ontario violated a police officer’s privacy rights by reviewing private text messages the officer sent using a two-way pager issued by the police department. The police officer had on several occasions exceeded the limit on the text messages provided by the department-paid plan. Each time, the officer paid for the overage without anyone reviewing his text messages. When the officer again exceeded the limit, his supervisor requested from the service provider and subsequently reviewed transcripts of the officer’s messages to determine if the messages were work-related.
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