Bad Idea: Overdisclosing People’s Positive STD Status–Doe v. Successfulmatch
This is a privacy lawsuit brought by people who signed up for a dating site (Positive Singles) for people with STDs. Plaintiffs allege that Successfulmatch, the company that operates the site, made numerous privacy representations stating in its website copy…
Android ID Isn’t Personally Identifiable Information Under the Video Privacy Protection Act
This is another Video Privacy Protection Act lawsuit. The Cartoon Network has an app on the Android platform. Plaintiff (not a minor) downloaded the app. He complains that The Cartoon Network’s disclosure of his viewing history to a third party…
Court Rejects Argument That ECPA Does not Apply to Spousal Interception of Email–LaRocca v. LaRocca
Eloisa LaRocca alleged that her former husband installed spyware on her computer and intercepted emails she sent. The ex-husband moved for summary judgment on the basis that ECPA did not apply to spousal interceptions of electronic communications. The ex-husband also…
When Does Online Criticism Become “Stalking”?–Ellis v. Chan
This is an online harassment dispute. Ellis, the plaintiff/petitioner, is the author of a poem called “The Dash”. She has achieved some degree of public figure status through the poem’s notoriety. The poem is about a person who speaks at…
Lawsuit Against Adware Vendor Fails–Halperin v. Text Enhance
Text Enhance, a program developed by Affluent Ads, scans web page text for certain keywords. When the user mouses over any of those keywords, the adware serves up a pop-up ad on the user’s computer. Halperin ended up with Text…
Washington State Supreme Court Hears an Interesting Privacy Case: Dillon v. Seattle Deposition Reporters
This is a super interesting case that’s working its way through the courts in Washington. In a nutshell, T-Mobile was a defendant in a breach of contract lawsuit brought by NetLogix in the Western District of Washington. T-Mobile was represented…
Employer Isn’t Liable When Former Employee Linked His Apple Accounts To Its Devices–Sunbelt v. Victor
Victor worked at Sunbelt as a sales rep but left to join a competitor. His former employer is suing him for trade secret misappropriation. Victor asserted privacy-based counterclaims. Sunbelt assigned him an iPhone and an iPad. He created an Apple…
Texas Supreme Court Limits Reach of Pre-suit Discovery (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s introduction: this guest blog post comes from Ed Cavazos of Bracewell & Giuliani in Austin, Texas, who I’ve known for 20 years. Ed was part of the first wave of lawyers and scholars focusing on Internet law, and he…
When Is It Appropriate To Monitor An Ex-Spouse’s Email Account? Never
Zaratzian and Abadir were married but divorced after a little over a decade. While the couple was married, Abadir opened a Cablevision account for internet and email service. He configured an account for Zaratzian and set the password. He also…
Lock Manufacturer Onity Had Only One Job, But Isn’t Liable For Failing To Do It Well (Forbes Cross-Post)
Let’s start with two non-controversial propositions: (1) no lock offers perfect security, and (2) any lock that can be defeated by a “stupidly simple” method is functionally worthless. But can a buyer of a functionally worthless lock recover in court?…