UN’s “Privacy Rapporteur” Speaking at Santa Clara University April 9
We invite you to attend a talk, entitled “Privacy, Personality, and Progress on Surveillance,” by Prof. Joseph Cannataci. The talk will be at Santa Clara University on April 9, 2018, from 7 to 8:30 pm. More details and free RSVP at the event…
Plaintiff’s Location-Based Privacy Claim Against BART Reporting App Fails
In Moreno v. S.F. Bay Area Rapid Transit District, the plaintiff sued BART and Elerts Corporation for allegedly violating several California privacy statutes and infringing plaintiff’s common law and constitutional privacy rights. The court rejects the claims. BART, in cooperation…
Some Upcoming Internet Law and Privacy Events at Santa Clara Law
We’re holding some outstanding Internet Law and privacy events on campus this semester that I wanted to make sure you knew about: * January 30, noon to 1: Ed Felten on the Future of Artificial Intelligence * February 2, all day: Content Moderation and…
Narrow Definition of “Personally Identifiable Information” Kills VPPA Case–Eichenberger v. ESPN
This is a Video Privacy Protection Act case. Plaintiff downloaded the WatchESPN channel on his Roku device and used it to watch videos. When he watched a video, ESPN disclosed the plaintiff’s device serial number and video title to Adobe Analytics….
Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Tracking Logged-Out Users–In re Facebook Internet Tracking
Facebook allegedly improperly tracked the activity of logged-out Facebook users on third party websites. Plaintiffs asserted claims based on common law rights and based on federal and state statutes, but the court previously rejected those. In the latest ruling, the court…
Privacy Plaintiffs Lack Standing Against NBA 2K15’s Face-Scanning Technology
This is a putative class action lawsuit against Take-Two, the video game publisher. Plaintiffs allege that the “MyPlayer” feature on NBA 2K15 violated Illinois’ biometric information privacy statute. The feature allowed players to upload a face-scan and then use a…
Section 230(c)(2) Protects Anti-Malware Vendor–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
[It’s impossible to blog about Section 230 without reminding you that it remains highly imperiled.] In 2009, the 9th Circuit ruled that Section 230(c)(2) protected Kaspersky from liability for blocking Zango’s software as adware. Since that ruling, we have seen relatively few…
Is Wikileaks Protected by Section 230? The Trump Campaign Thinks So
[It’s impossible to blog about Section 230 without reminding you that it remains highly imperiled.] In Cockrum v. Donald J. Trump for President (see the amended complaint), the Trump campaign is being sued for allegedly colluding with Wikileaks and the Russians…
App Listening For Audio Beacons May Be Illegal Wiretapping–Rackemann v. Colts
This is a lawsuit against the Colts and app developers, alleging that the Colts’ app activates a device’s microphone and temporarily records portions of audio, for advertising purposes. The app monitors the audio for “beacon tones” which are then used…
Nigerians Phish a B2B Transaction & Steal $736k. Who Bears the Loss?–Beau Townsend Ford v. Don Hinds Ford
This case could be a law school exam. Beau Townsend Ford (the seller) was looking to unload Ford Explorers in bulk. Their sales guy connects with a person at Don Hinds Ford (the buyer). They had transacted with each other…