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…
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…
Judge Koh Dismisses the Bulk of the Yahoo Email Scanning Class Action
Plaintiffs are non-Yahoo email users who sent messages to Yahoo users. They allege that Yahoo’s email scans violate federal and state wiretapping laws and invade their privacy. ECPA: This claim alleges that Yahoo “intercepts” the emails. ECPA is subject to…
Google Wins Cookie Privacy Lawsuit
In re Google Inc. Cookie Placement Consumer Privacy Litigation, MDL Civ No. 12-2358 (D. Del. Oct. 9, 2013) [pdf] The factual background in the court’s order is fairly brief. In a nutshell, plaintiffs sued Google, along with advertisers and networks,…
Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Software Company Liable for Surveillance Conducted by Its Customer – Luis v. Zang
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Luis v. Zang, 12 cv 629 (S.D. Oh. Mar. 5, 2013) Divorces have spawned some of the most interesting privacy disputes, such as the cases involving whether GPS surveillance of a vehicle violated one spouse’s privacy…
Lawyer Who Advised Brother-in-Law Regarding the Use of Spyware on His Wife Disqualified in Ensuing Privacy Dispute — Zang v. Zang
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Zang v. Zang, 11-cv-00884 (S.D. Ohio; Aug. 30, 2012) This is another case involving surreptitious monitoring in the context of a divorce. I’ve half-jokingly mentioned that people who deploy monitoring or tracking software should seek the…
State Privacy Claims not Preempted by ECPA — Leong v. Carrier IQ
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Leong v. Carrier IQ et al., CV 12-01562 GAF (NRWx) (C.D. Cal.; Apr. 27, 2012) This case addresses the issue of whether claims under state privacy statutes are preempted by ECPA, the federal statute governing the…
Court Disregards Check-the-Box Agreement and Doesn’t Enforce Venue Clause — Dunstan v. comScore
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with additional comments from Eric] Dunstan v. comScore, Inc., 11-cv-05807 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 7, 2011) Plaintiffs sued comScore, alleging that comScore improperly obtained and misused plaintiff’s personal information, after plaintiffs downloaded and used comScore’s software. comScore…
Comparative Domain Name and Keyword Regulation Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman I have a busy semester of talks, so I will be rolling out some talk slides over the next few days. Today, I’m posting my talk slides from a talk I gave last month at the University…
Wildcarding Subdomains Is OK; Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Isn’t–Goforit v. Digimedia
By Eric Goldman Goforit Entertainment LLC v. Digimedia.com LP, 2010 WL 4602549 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 25, 2010). See the related personal jurisdiction ruling from 2007 featuring a completely different but still ridiculously large and expensive cast of lawyers. This is…