The VPPA May Be a Dinosaur Statute, But It’s Very Much Alive in the Second Circuit–Salazar v. NBA
NBA.com passed along video viewing information to Facebook using the Facebook Pixel, including “(1) the title of the NBA.com video a user watched, (2) that video’s URL, and (3) the user’s “Facebook ID” (FID)—a number unique to each individual Facebook…
Pixel Case Against Google “Jumps the Shark”–Doe I v. Google (Catch Up Post)
It feels like we are getting a pixel ruling every day. I’ve ignored most of them. I’ve decided this one from 2 months ago is worth blogging, even at this date, given Judge Chhabria’s treatment of these claims. The court…
Augmented Reality Filters May Violate Privacy Law–Hartman v. Meta
This case involves augmented reality (AR) effects/”filters” that people can use to doctor up images and videos on social media, such as the ability to add virtual bunny ears, flower crowns, or cat whiskers to people in the image or…
Another Texas Online Censorship Law Partially Enjoined–CCIA v. Paxton
This case involves HB 18, one of the multitudinous online censorship laws the Texas Legislature keeps spewing out. This particular one requires “digital service providers” to age-authenticate all users. [This law extends HB 1181, which also requires age-authentication by some…
AWS Can’t Shake BIPA Lawsuit for Providing Services to NBA 2K–Mayhall v. Amazon
[This opinion from May just showed up in my alerts. I believe that’s because the court and parties are battling over redactions. There have been other decisions involving BIPA, NBA 2K, and sometimes AWS that I haven’t comprehensively blogged. I…
When It Comes to Section 230, the Ninth Circuit is a Chaos Agent–Estate of Bride v. YOLO
The Ninth Circuit is interpreting Section 230 again. Time to grab your tissue box. * * * The Jenga-ing of Section 230 continues in the Ninth Circuit. This time, the court blows up the Barnes precedent, which created a promissory…
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Key Part of the CA Age-Appropriate Design Code (the Rest is TBD)–NetChoice v. Bonta
The California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) is a “think of the kids” law that nominally purports to protect kids’ privacy. However, as I will explain in my forthcoming Segregate-and-Suppress article, it hurts children and advances censorship…so it’s just bad policy–and…
It’s Hard to Bind Former Subscribers to TOS Amendments–Brooks v. WarnerMedia
This is a VPPA case over Meta Pixels. 🙄🙄🙄 Everyone agrees this lawsuit will be going to arbitration per the HBO Max TOS. However, in 2022, HBO Max swapped arbitration providers from AAA to NAM. The opinion doesn’t clearly explain…
Coursera Wins a TOS Formation Battle, But With Heavy Losses–Ghazizadeh v. Coursera
This is a VPPA case 🙄. Coursera invoked the arbitration clause in its TOS. It gets the arbitration it wanted, but via a messy opinion that does not represent a clean approval of its TOS management practices. Check out how…
Facebook Defeats BIPA Face-Scanning Lawsuit–Zellmer v. Meta
It’s unexpectedly turned into “BIPA Week” here at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog. 🥳 Yesterday, I blogged about an unsuccessful BIPA challenge to PhotoDNA. Today, I’m blogging about an unsuccessful BIPA challenge to Facebook’s friend-tagging feature. Despite the festivities,…