Another Credit Card Breach Lawsuit Fails – Willingham v. Global Payments
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Willingham v. Global Payments, Inc., 12-CV-01157 (N.D. Ga. Feb 5, 2013) (case later dismissed by the parties) This is a data breach lawsuit arising out of an incident in which credit card information was purloined from…
IMDB’s Disclosure of Actress’s Age Will Go To Trial – Hoang v. Amazon
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment by Eric] Hoang v. IMDb.com, C11-1709MJP (W.D. Wash. Mar. 18, 2013) We’ve blogged about this dispute—involving an actress’s attempt to hold IMDb liable for publishing her age against her wishes—before. The court recently…
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…
“Regulation of Social Media and Mobile Media” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman Last month, I spoke at the ABA Antitrust Section’s always-well-done Consumer Protection Conference. This time I was recruited as the provocateur to discuss the challenges of regulating social media and mobile media. Regular readers know where I…
Court Dismisses Data Breach Lawsuit Against LinkedIn Based on Compromised Passwords – In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, 2013 WL 844291 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 5, 2013) [pdf] LinkedIn suffered a data breach in 2012. Someone allegedly posted 6.5 million passwords and email addresses from LinkedIn users on the…
Employer Fails to State Stored Communications Act Claims Absent Allegations That Employees Interfered With Company Accounts – Castle Megastore v. Wilson
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Castle Megastore Group, Inc. v. Wilson, et al., 2013 WL 672895 (D. Ariz. Feb. 25, 2013) Castle Megastore is going after three of its former employees for their alleged breaches of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets,…
Building Owner Can’t Discover the Identity of Tenant Who Writes Bashing Yelp Review (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Brompton Building, LLC v. Yelp!, Inc., 2013 IL App (1st) 120547-U (Ill. App. Ct. Jan. 31, 2013) Battles over online anonymity aren’t new, and we’ve made a lot of progress clarifying the legal rules. Usually, when a…
Washington State’s Proposed Employer Social Media Law: The Legislature Should Take a Cautious Approach — SB 5211
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] [Washington State’s Proposed Employer Social Media Password Legislation – SB 5211] Eric previously posted on his concerns about California’s law restricting employer access to social media accounts. The Washington State Senate recently proposed a law (SB…
“Privacy Policies in the United States” Presentation Slides
By Eric Goldman I recently guest lectured on drafting privacy policies in the United States. My presentation slides. One of my big-picture takeaway points is that privacy laws and associated industry self-regulation have gotten so extensive that drafting privacy policies…
California Supreme Court: Retail Privacy Statute Doesn’t Apply to Download Transactions – Apple v Superior Court (Krescent)
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Apple v. Superior Court ex rel Krescent, S199384 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Feb. 4, 2013) In a divided ruling, the California Supreme Court held that California’s privacy statute restricting retailers from collecting personal…