Wiretapping

Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in an unpublished decision, undercut the latest attempt of the plaintiffs’ bar to penalize the common business practice of using tracking pixels on websites.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

Mass arbitrations—where a plaintiffs’ firm brings dozens, hundreds, or thousands of identical claims against a business—is a mechanism increasingly relied upon by the plaintiffs’ bar in the past few years.  This is because mass arbitrations enable a plaintiffs’ firm to create settlement pressure by leveraging unavoidable arbitration fees borne by a business regardless of the merits of the claims filed.  Further powered by litigation funding, plaintiffs’ firms have used the mass arbitration device to bring vexatious claims and escape review of the merits or any downside risk.Continue Reading 2025 Mass Arbitration Year in Review

A Domino’s customer may proceed in her putative class action for violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) against ConverseNow for its provision of an AI virtual assistant that processes restaurant telephone orders. In Taylor v. ConverseNow Technologies, Inc., Case No. 25-cv-00990-SI, 2025 WL 2308483 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 11, 2025), the Court…

This fall, a federal court in California granted summary judgment in favor of a website operator for alleged violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). In its decision, the Court emphasized that it was “virtually impossible” to apply CIPA to internet communications and urged the California legislature to “step up” and “speak clearly” about how internet activity should be treated under the statute in light of a deluge of claims that have been filed recently against website operators.Continue Reading California Federal Court Urges California Legislature to Clean Up “Total Mess” of State Wiretap Act, Dismisses Claim for Website Tracking

Over the past year, there has been an explosion of lawsuits targeting website analytics and tracking tools. One recent decision brought businesses another victory in challenging lawsuits alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act’s (CIPA)’s prohibition against use of “pen registers” and “trap and trace devices.” Cal. Penal Code § 638.51. In a recent ruling, a federal judge in the Central District of California dismissed one such lawsuit, holding that the claim could not be asserted in federal court.Continue Reading Federal Court Dismisses “Trap and Trace” Lawsuit for Plaintiff’s Lack of Injury

In early October, a federal court in the Northern District of Illinois refused to dismiss a privacy litigation brought against a healthcare website operator for claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The court held that the plaintiff plausibly alleged that Defendant violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by revealing to a third party that she clicked on the login button to the healthcare provider’s patient portal, and, as a result, disclosed her individually identifiable healthcare information—even though no third-party data collection tools were installed on the patient portal itself. Hartley v. Univ. of Chi. Med. Ctr., Case No. 22-cv-5891, 2025 WL 2802317 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 1, 2025).  However, at the same time, the court dismissed certain claims arising out of Plaintiff’s use of a “find-a-physician feature,” rejecting the full scope of Plaintiff’s theories. On the balance, this decision unfortunately broadens the scope of potential liability under the ECPA and will likely result in ECPA suits being brought against website operators in the healthcare sector.Continue Reading Federal Court Holds That Button-Click Data From Public Website Can Disclose Patient Status in Violation of the ECPA

As courts throughout the country wrestle with Article III standing in Session Replay Code cases alleging violations of wiretapping laws, consumer protection statutes and privacy torts, another federal court from the Eastern District of Missouri has joined those recently holding that a plaintiff must allege the sharing of some type of personal or sensitive information on the website in question in order to adequately alleged a concrete harm supporting Article III standing. Where the plaintiff failed to do so, the Court found Plaintiff failed adequately allege a concrete harm and dismissed her putative class action complaint for lack of standing in Adams v. PSP Group, LLC, No. 4:22-CV-1210 RLW, 2023 WL 5951784, — F. Supp.3d —- (E.D. Mo. September 13, 2023).Continue Reading Missouri Federal Court Declines to Transfer Case to Join Session Replay Class Actions in Washington and Dismisses Case for Plaintiff’s Failure to Allege Standing

A growing area of privacy litigation concerns claims brought under federal and state wiretapping laws against website operators.  In many of those cases, plaintiffs allege that their personal information was improperly intercepted and disclosed to third parties, including in relation to information purportedly provided through a website’s chat feature.  Last month, a federal court in…

A putative federal class action brought on behalf of delivery drivers asserting invasion of privacy and wiretapping claims against a global e-commerce company survived an interlocutory appeal last week.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California that allows plaintiff’s claims to proceed.…