Pennsylvania Court Orders Personal Injury Plaintiff to Turn Over Facebook Password to Defendant — Largent v. Reed

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Largent v. Reed, 2009-1823 (Pa. Ct. of Common Pleas; Nov. 8, 2011) Keith and Jessica Largent were involved in an accident in 2007. They sued Jessica Rosko and Sagrario Pena alleging negligence and loss of consortium….

Facebook Settles With the FTC — In re Facebook, Inc.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] In re Facebook, Inc. (Nov. 29, 2011) (Settlement & Proposed Consent Decree [pdf]) (Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post) The FTC announced its long-rumored settlement with Facebook. The key terms: • Facebook is barred…

Redbox Can be Liable Under the Video Privacy Protection Act for Failure to Purge Video Rental Records — Sterk v. Redbox

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Sterk v. Redbox, 11 c 1729 (N.D. Ill. Aug 19, 2011) Redbox is a company which rents DVDs to customers from automated, self-service kiosks, typically charging $1 per rental. The customer is required to return the…

App Developer RockYou Settles Privacy Lawsuit–Claridge v. RockYou

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Claridge v. RockYou, 09-CV-6032-PJH (N.D. Cal.; Nov. 14, 2011) (settlement pending court approval) Eric and I previously blogged about the opinion in Claridge v. RockYou, where the court tentatively recognized the theory…

LinkedIn Beats Referrer URL Privacy Class Action on Article III Standing Grounds–Low v. LinkedIn

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Low v. LinkedIn, 2011 WL 5509848 (N.D. Ca.; Nov. 11, 2011) Low brought a putative class action against LinkedIn, complaining about the fact that LinkedIn “allows transmission of users’ personally identifiable browsing…

Minnesota Appeals Court Says Tracking Statute Excludes Use of GPS to Track Jointly Owned Vehicle — State v. Hormann

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] State v. Hormann, A10-18722 (Minn. Ct. App. October 19, 2011) Hormann was charged with installing a tracking device on his then-wife’s car, in violation of a Minnesota statute prohibiting the use of, among other things, tracking…

Yahoo Partially Defeats Lawsuit Over Wrongful Account Termination–Buza v. Yahoo

By Eric Goldman Buza v. Yahoo, Inc., 2011 WL 5041174 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 24, 2011). The complaint. Buza claims Yahoo terminated two GeoCities accounts related to his advocacy efforts. Buza is proceeding pro se, which is typical for user lawsuits…

In Hannaford Data Breach Case, First Circuit Says Card Replacement and ID Theft Insurance are Reasonable Mitigation Damages and Compensable–Anderson v. Hannaford Bros.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Anderson v. Hannaford Brothers Co., 10-2384; 2450 (1st Cir. Oct. 20, 2011) Background: Plaintiffs sued Hannaford based on a massive data breach in 2007. In this ruling, the First Circuit said that money spent by plaintiffs…

Ex-Employee Converted Social Media/Website Passwords by Keeping Them From Her Employer–Ardis Health v. Nankivell

[Post by Venkat, with comments from Eric] Ardis Health, LLC, Curb Your Cravings, LLC and USA Herbals, LLC v. Ashleigh Nankivell, 2011 WL 4965172 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 19, 2011) Nenkivell worked for CYC as a “video and social media producer.” Her…

Did California Unintentionally (?) Impose New Statutory Duties on Every Blogger? A Post on the Newly Enacted California Reader Privacy Act

By Eric Goldman California recently enacted the Reader Privacy Act, SB 602. See the EFF announcement. This new California law seeks to protect online book reader privacy to the same extent reader privacy is protected by libraries, by requiring heightened…