General

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear an appeal concerning the definition of “consumer” under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), 18 U.S.C. § 2710; long one of the most frequently litigated privacy laws.  If the Court affirms the lower court’s decision, it will defeat yet another attempt by the plaintiff’s bar to penalize companies who host audio visual content on their websites.Continue Reading Supreme Court Agrees to Resolve VPPA Circuit Split

On January 1, 2026, the amendments to the Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection Act (VTPPA), Va. Code § 59.1-510 et seq., went into effect. The amendments expand the scope of the VTPPA to explicitly include both calls and texts and provide enhanced statutory damages for willful or repeated violations. With the added requirements and heightened…

For years, one of the most frequently litigated privacy laws has been the Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2710, a federal statute enacted in 1988 in response to the disclosure of then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s videotape rental history by a video store to a reporter, who published the list.  Despite its analogue origins, this decades-old statute has been used by the plaintiff’s bar (incentivized by the VPPA’s $2,500 per violation liquidated damages provision) in putative class action litigation brought against any business whose website contains playable videos and third-party cookies.

This past year, there were several significant court rulings in litigation under the VPPA.  These decisions addressed hotly contested VPPA elements while also laying the foundation for a potential circuit split.  Squire Patton Boggs’ globally ranked “Elite” Data Disputes team is well experienced defending businesses and their data practices, including in the realm of VPPA litigation and (mass) arbitration.  In this article, informed by our practical experience litigating and arbitrating VPPA cases, we: (I) provide a brief primer on VPPA elements and litigation theories, (II) cover a Second Circuit decision, and other district court decisions, on the definition of personally identifiable information under the VPPA (III) address decisions from the Sixth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits on the scope of persons who can bring VPPA claims, and (V) give an update on a recent Eighth Circuit decision regarding which businesses are subject to the VPPA.  These areas are all likely to bear upon VPPA claims and ongoing litigation in 2026, making this a must read for in-house counsel and practitioners in this space.Continue Reading 2025 Video Privacy Protection Act Litigation Year in Review

One of the most significantly litigated areas of privacy law is biometric privacy. Tools that collect biometric information and biometric identifiers—including facial geometries, fingerprint scans, and voiceprints—are increasingly common for businesses across industries. Unfortunately, such tools in recent years have become focuses of the plaintiffs’ bar.

2025 saw continued developments in litigation under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), one of the first and most important biometric privacy laws in the country, as well as other, lesser-litigated biometric laws. Squire Patton Boggs’ globally ranked “Elite” Data Disputes team is well experienced defending businesses and their data practices, including in the realm of biometric privacy, in both litigation and arbitration, including mass arbitration. See also https://www. privacyworld.blog/2025/12/2025-mass-arbitration-year-in-review/

In this article, informed by our practical experience litigating and arbitrating biometric cases, we: (I) provide a brief primer on BIPA and then take a look at some highlights of the 2025 biometric privacy litigation space, including (II) class action and mass arbitration activity under BIPA, (III) key questions regarding defenses to BIPA claims on appeal at the Seventh Circuit, (IV) a decision contrasting BIPA with New York City’s biometric regime, (V) developments under other biometric laws enforced by attorneys general, and (VI) the intersection of AI and biometric privacy laws.Continue Reading 2025 Year-In-Review: Biometric Privacy Litigation

Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in an unpublished decision, undercut the latest attempt of the plaintiffs’ bar to penalize the common business practice of using tracking pixels on websites. These pixels are pieces of code created by third-party advertisers and analytics companies that can collect information about website visits such as a visitor’s IP address, when the visit occurred, and what links were clicked on within the site. Despite being used by most major U.S. businesses, tracking pixels have been increasingly targeted by plaintiffs for their alleged disclosure of certain information back to the company that operates them. Squire Patton Boggs’ Data Disputes team has significant experience defending these claims in litigation and arbitration (and obtaining dismissals for clients). 

Read on for more about the Third Circuit’s decision in this case.Continue Reading Third Circuit Strikes a Blow to Yet Another Attempt to Penalize the Use of Tracking Pixels