Bank Might Bear Loss for Fraudulent Money Transfers Initiated From Its Website–Patco v Ocean Bank (Catch-Up Post)
By Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan (with Venkat’s supervision), with a comment from Eric Patco v. Ocean Bank, 11-2031 (1st Cir. July 3, 2012) When a scammer siphons money from a customer’s online bank account, should the bank or the customer…
Court Declines to Dismiss Video Privacy Protection Act Claims against Hulu
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re Hulu Privacy Litigation, C 11-03764 LB (N.D. Cal.; Aug. 10, 2012) Hulu is facing a putative class action alleging that Hulu improperly disclosed the video viewing choices of its users without obtaining consent. Hulu…
Ex-Employee’s Access/Misuse of Employer Files States CFAA Claim — Weingand v. Harland Financial
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] Weingand v. Harland Financial Solutions, C 11 3109 EMC (N.D. Cal.; June 19, 2012) Weingand involves claims brought by an employee, and proposed counterclaims brought by the employer against the employee. Nor…
CA Court Confirms that Pineda v Williams-Sonoma (the Zip-Code-as-PII Case) Applies Retrospectively — Dardarian v. OfficeMax
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Dardarian v. OfficeMax North America, Inc., 11-CV-0947-YGR (N.D. Cal.; Jun. 25, 2012) The Song-Beverly Act is a California statute that prohibits retailers from requesting personal identification information in connection with credit card transactions. In Pineda v….
4th Circuit Limits the Reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – WEC Carolina Energy Solutions v. Miller
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] WEC Carolina Energy Solutions LLC v. Miller, et al., 2012 WL 3039213 (4th Cir.; July 26, 2012) We’ve blogged about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act being stretched by plaintiffs in civil…
Franchisor Isn’t Liable Under the TCPA for Franchisees’ Text Message Campaign – Thomas v. Taco Bell
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Thomas v. Taco Bell Corp., SACV 09-01097-CJC(ANx) (C.D. Cal.; June 25, 2012) Thomas allegedly received unauthorized text messages as part of an advertising campaign for Taco Bell’s Nachos BellGrande (“[a] large platter…
Ex-Spouse Hit With 20K in Damages for Email Eavesdropping – Klumb v. Goan
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Klumb v. Goan, 09-cv-115 (E.D. Tenn.; July 19, 2012) Klumb, described by the court as “a wealthy man,” met and married Crystal Goan, a law student who later became a lawyer. As the court describes it,…
Judge Koh Puts the Kibosh on LinkedIn Referral ID Class Action — Low v. LinkedIn
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Low v. LinkedIn, 11-CV-01468-LHK (N.D. Cal.; July 12, 2012) This case involves the fact that LinkedIn put users’ unique identifiers into its URLs, allowing advertisers (and others) to associate that unique identifier with users–and, potentially, access…
Court Dismisses Data Breach Claims Against Countrywide – Holmes v. Countrywide
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Holmes v. Countrywide Financial Corp., et al., 08-CV-00205-R (W.D. Ky.; July 12, 2012) In August 2008, a Countrywide employee engaged in a scheme to steal confidential customer information from Countrywide. An investigation found that the employee…
“Cloud Computing: Is Anything Private?” Talk Notes
By Eric Goldman Last month, I spoke at Cal State Northridge to a group of academic computer users (i.e., faculty and staff) on the topic of “Cloud Computing: Is Anything Private?” My talk slides. Check out my “fun” with PowerPoint’s…