The ‘Long Arm’ of CIPA and Its Newfound Pen-Trap Claims
It has been amply documented how the California Plaintiffs’ Bar has exploited the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”)–explicitly designed during the Cold War to address telephonic wiretapping and eavesdropping—to...more
Here are the top ten items you should tackle in September, based on the latest workplace law developments and upcoming critical compliance dates...more
Website operators secured another win in the protracted battle over third-party website cookies last week when a California state court held that these common tech features were not “trap and trace” devices and therefore a...more
Like a zombie apocalypse, hordes of California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) claims have chased corporate defendants to court where they were held off for a time, until, clawing at the courthouse doors, CIPA claims broke...more
If your company uses a third-party tool to power your website chat function or AI-assisted customer service, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just delivered a ruling you should know about. On July 9, the court affirmed...more
Introduction - The intersection of digital customer service tools and privacy law continues to generate high-stakes litigation, especially in California, where the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) has become a...more
Readers of this blog may recall a piece in which we discussed an unfavorable Ninth Circuit California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) internet wiretapping decision. Interestingly, the Ninth Circuit recently weighed in again...more
The Northern District of California recently dismissed, with prejudice, a purported class action against Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (Royal Caribbean), alleging a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)...more
Websites are ubiquitous, and so are cookies and tracking pixels (a/k/a web beacons). A web browser uses cookies to store login details and preferences; the cookies also track and profile user behavior. When visiting a...more
A California bill aimed at curbing the explosion of lawsuits filed against businesses using common website tools like cookies, pixels, and session replay software has stalled out in the 2025 legislative session, meaning your...more
Healthline Media has agreed to pay $1.55 million to resolve allegations that it violated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – which is the largest settlement to date under the state’s landmark privacy law. The...more
In a significant win for Royal Caribbean Cruises, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that alleged the cruise line’s website violated a California privacy law by using a TikTok tracking tool. The case, Kishnani v. Royal...more
The Ninth Circuit recently issued two back-to-back memoranda of dispositions addressing claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) Section 631 and the common law tort of intrusion upon seclusion. First, on...more
In a significant win for the defense, a California federal judge denied class certification in a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) suit alleging that AddShoppers and Peet’s Coffee unlawfully tracked website visitors...more
Readers of this blog are aware of the barrage of California Invasion of Privacy (“CIPA”) claims brought against online companies. Recently, an unfavorable decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Ninth Circuit”)...more
On June 3, 2025, the California Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 690 (SB 690) in a 35-0 vote, a strong show of support for reining in a flood of lawsuits that have taken many companies by surprise over the last few...more
It’s 2025, and somehow, we’re still dealing with lawsuits over a law that was born in the pen registers and rotary phones era. That law, the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), a decades-old statute that’s suddenly...more
Readers may recall prior pieces in which we discussed a pair of law firms responsible for bringing California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) arbitration demands against online businesses. These CIPA arbitration demands...more
On April 29, 2025, the Senate Public Safety Committee voted 6-0 to advance legislation that would exempt processing of personal information for a commercial business purpose from coverage by the California Invasion of Privacy...more
California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) wiretapping claims against online businesses are topics with which our readers are well-versed. Inconsistent court decisions about whether wiretapping claims under CIPA apply to the...more
Businesses just received some good news when a federal court dismissed a California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) claim that aimed to expand the reach of the state’s wiretapping law to cover internet communications. The...more
Courts across the country are becoming skeptical of data breach and web tracking claims that assert theoretical privacy violations without alleging any actual injury to the plaintiffs. Recent decisions underscore that courts...more
In a big win for businesses, a California federal court just held that a “tester” plaintiff—someone who visits websites to initiate litigation—cannot bring a claim under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)....more
In a big win for businesses, a California federal court just held that a “tester” plaintiff – someone who visits websites for purposes of initiating litigation – cannot bring a claim under the California Invasion of Privacy...more
If you are “tester” who actively seeks out privacy violations and files lawsuits to ensure legal compliance (as many class action lawsuit plaintiffs are), you do NOT have Article III standing to sue, according to a recent...more