Online Commenter Did Not Waive Right to Anonymity by Agreeing to News Website’s Privacy Policy — Sedersten v. Taylor
[Post by Venkat] Sedersten v. Taylor, 2009 U.S. Dist LEXIS 114525 (Case No. 09-3031-CV-S-GAF) (W.D. Mo. Dec. 9. 2009). A Missouri district judge rejected a plaintiff’s attempt to unmask an online commenter based in part on the argument that language…
Court Rejects Computer Fraud & Abuse Act Claim Based on Unsolicited Text Messages–Czech v. Wall Street on Demand
[Post by Venkat] Czech v. Wall Street on Demand, Inc., No. 09-180 (DWF/RLE) (Dec. 8, 2009). A Minnesota district judge rejected claims brought under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act based on the receipt of unsolicited text messages. There’s not…
Claims Brought by Express Scripts Data Breach Plaintiffs Rejected on Standing Grounds — Amburgy v. Express Scripts, Inc.
[Post by Venkat] A federal court in Missouri recently rejected a class action brought by consumer plaintiffs on standing grounds. Given the long line of consumer plaintiffs who have suffered a similar fate I thought this case was somewhat unexceptional,…
A Look at Twitter’s Updated Privacy Policy (November 19, 2009)
[Post by Venkat] As noted on Twitter’s blog, Twitter refreshed its privacy policy yesterday. Given that virtually everything Twitter does is placed under the microscope, I’m sure the policy will be pored over in detail. (Here’s a link to the…
Keylogger Software Company Not Liable for Eavesdropping by Ex-spouse — Hayes v. SpectorSoft
[Posted by Venkat] In what probably belongs in the “software doesn’t surreptitiously record conversations, people do” file, a federal court in Tennessee rejected Electronic Communications Privacy Act and product liability claims brought by someone whose ex-spouse used software to log…
Starbucks Data Breach Plaintiffs Try Their Luck in the 9th Circuit — Krottner v. Starbucks
[Post by Venkat] A lost laptop computer containing the personal information of Starbucks employees prompted a class action lawsuit against Starbucks (in Washington). The lawsuit received some coverage (see, for example Bob McMillan here, and Starbucks Gossip here), but the…
Court Sanctions Lawyer for Including Social Security Number and Date of Birth Information in Filing — Engeseth v. Isanti County
[Post by Venkat] I’ve blogged about parties who complain when opposing counsel wrongly includes personal information (usually social security numbers) in court filings. Attempts to assert counterclaims based on this type of conduct typically fail. For one example, see In…
October 2009 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Just a reminder that I am posting most of these types of links exclusively to my Twitter feed. * Tricome v. eBay, Inc., 2009 WL 3365873 (E.D.Pa. Oct 19, 2009). Court upholds eBay user agreement’s venue selection…
Court: Prosecutors Can’t Rummage Around in a Defendant’s Gmail Account — U.S. v. Cioffi
[Post by Venkat] The government is prosecuting a couple of Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for securities fraud and related offenses. I came across a story that prosecutors obtained evidence from the gmail account of one of the defendants which…
Judge Rejects Attempts by Texas Plaintiffs to Intervene in Beacon Class Action–Harris v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat] I mentioned last week that a group of plaintiffs sought to intervene in the class action filed against Facebook in the Northern District of California. The Texas plaintiffs who sought to intervene were part of a class…