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Privacy
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March 18, 2013
Symantec Inks $11M Deal Ending Claims It Used Scare Tactics
Software maker Symantec Corp. agreed Friday to hand over $11 million to a class of customers accusing the company of breach of contract and fraud for tricking them into believing their computers suffered from privacy threats and other technical problems in order to sell antivirus programs.
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March 18, 2013
Editor's $5M Tom Cruise Wiretap Claims Mission Impossible
Actor Tom Cruise and attorney Bert Fields on Monday escaped a $5 million suit alleging they hired a private eye to wiretap a magazine editor's phone as a Los Angeles judge ruled that the editor waited too long to file his claims.
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March 18, 2013
Employer Liable For Hijacking Former Exec's LinkedIn Page
The former president of banking education company Edcomm Inc. convinced a Pennsylvania federal judge to find her former employer liable for invasion of privacy for wrongfully commandeering her LinkedIn account after she was fired, but failed to show she was entitled to damages, according to a recent filing.
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March 18, 2013
LexisNexis Pays $14M In Suit Over Reports Sold To Debt Cos.
LexisNexis Risk & Analytics Group Inc. will pay $13.5 million and overhaul its Accurint background search product to settle nationwide class action claims that it sold reports to debt collectors without following consumer protection laws, it said Friday.
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March 15, 2013
Wal-Mart Off Hook For Reporting Child Nude Photos: 9th Circ.
The Ninth Circuit on Friday agreed with an Arizona federal judge that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. did not break privacy laws by informing police of suspected child abuse related to nude photographs of three young girls that a married couple developed at the store.
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March 15, 2013
DC Circ. Tells CIA To Stop Hiding Drone Strike Docs
The D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the Central Intelligence Agency could not refuse to confirm or deny the existence of documents pertaining to targeted drone strikes, limiting a response federal agencies often favor when denying Freedom of Information Act requests.
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March 14, 2013
ZIP Code Ruling Puts Retailers In Privacy Hot Seat
The Massachusetts high court's Monday ruling that ZIP codes constitute personal identification information will not only set off an avalanche of privacy class actions against retailers in the state, but also may encourage plaintiffs in other states to pursue similarly friendly decisions, attorneys say.
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March 13, 2013
Mich. Appeals Court Shields Med Records In Malpractice Case
A Michigan appeals court said Tuesday that physician-patient privilege protected state Medicaid records in a putative class action accusing a doctor of making intentionally false diagnoses, nixing a lower court's order that the state health department turn them over.
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March 13, 2013
Judge Merges Dish Telemarketing Suits Brought By DOJ, FTC
An Illinois judge on Monday allowed the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to effectively merge a pair of suits accusing satellite broadcaster Dish Network LLC of violating telemarketing sales rules by placing unwanted calls to millions of consumers.
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March 12, 2013
NJ High Court Says Bad Counsel No Excuse For Late Notice
The inattention or incompetence of counsel doesn't excuse someone looking to bring a tort claim against a public entity in New Jersey from failing to meet presuit notification requirements, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in case concerning the disclosure of private health information.
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March 12, 2013
NY State Law Prohibits TCPA Suits, Judge Finds
A New York federal judge on Monday threw out a Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuit accusing Independence Energy Group LLC of placing illegal prerecorded telemarketing calls, ruling that class actions seeking statutory damages are not allowed under state law.
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March 12, 2013
Google Inks $7M Deal To Squash Wi-Fi Data Collection Claims
Google Inc. will pay $7 million and mount a national data-security education campaign to settle claims brought by more than 30 states over its harvesting of personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, several states announced Tuesday.
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March 12, 2013
Insurers Can't Nix Convergys Call-Recording Defense Suit
An Ohio federal judge on Tuesday refused to toss customer services provider Convergys Corp.'s suit against seven insurance companies demanding coverage for a pair of underlying class actions accusing Convergys of illegally recording phone calls, finding that the company has shown that its claims are plausible.
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March 11, 2013
9th Circ. Pioneers Laptop Search Limits In Border Case
The Ninth Circuit on Friday narrowed the federal government's broad mandate to search laptops and other electronic devices for evidence of a crime at the U.S.' international borders, a move attorneys hope will encourage other courts to provide greater protection for data stored by companies and individuals.
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March 11, 2013
Mass. High Court Says Privacy Worries Drive Credit Card Law
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Monday that the main purpose of a state law restricting businesses from asking credit card holders to offer personal information — which it also ruled includes ZIP codes — is to protect consumer privacy and not against credit card identity fraud.
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March 8, 2013
Google Agrees To Pay $7M In Street View Privacy Probe
Google Inc. has reportedly agreed to pay $7 million to resolve a massive investigation into the private information it collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks for its mapping service.
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March 8, 2013
Apple Blasted For Failing To Produce Docs In Privacy MDL
A California federal judge ordered Apple Inc. on Wednesday to provide a detailed explanation of its discovery process after determining the company’s document production record in a consolidated putative class action over its data tracking practices was unacceptable.
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March 7, 2013
Filmmaker Pays $100K To Settle ACORN Privacy Suit
Conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe III on Thursday settled a privacy suit in California federal court for $100,000 and a pledge to apologize to a former employee of community activist group ACORN, who was fired after being secretly videotaped and featured in one of O’Keefe’s 2009 “sting” videos.
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March 7, 2013
Great American Can't Shake Taped Call Coverage Suit
A Georgia federal judge refused Wednesday to let Great American Insurance Co. exit a lawsuit seeking coverage for a California class action alleging DS Waters of America Inc. recorded customer calls, finding the insurer was premature in seeking dismissal.
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March 7, 2013
Former Italian PM Berlusconi Convicted In Wiretap Case
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was reportedly convicted and sentenced to one year in prison Thursday on charges that he caused a wiretapped conversation, recorded during a probe involving a bank takeover attempt, to be illegally published in a newspaper.
Expert Analysis
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What Litigators Must Know About Va.’s 'Rocket Docket'
Do not be lulled into a false sense of complacency by the formality, civility and, in some cases, old-fashioned Southern charm of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Cases usually move with lightning speed, handled by efficient, polite, but no-nonsense jurists and courtroom deputies. There are many traps for the unwary, say Robert Tata and Wendy McGraw of Hunton & Williams LLP.
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A Setback For Apple In Privacy MDL
As a result of Apple Inc.'s failure to comply with discovery obligations, a judge in the Northern District of California recently denied Apple's motion for summary judgment in a privacy class action by iPhone and iPad owners and ordered the plaintiffs to withdraw their class certification motion and refile later. Having now shown its cards on grounds for its dispositive motion and for opposing class certification, Apple could be in a quandary, says Evan Nadel of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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We Need More Diversity In Mediation
In our increasingly interconnected global marketplace, U.S. corporations could well profit from engaging alternative dispute resolution practitioners who are familiar with these diverse cultures. But problems in the development and retention of minority neutrals exist, even as the U.S. population grows more and more diverse, says Ariel Belen, a panelist with JAMS and former associate justice of the New York Supreme Court.
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E-Discovery Trends: Looking Back To Move Forward
E-discovery decisions throughout 2012 and early 2013 have shed some light on the issues, but they have also raised new questions and conflicting standards regarding how courts address litigation holds, cooperation with opposing counsel, and new technologies, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
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Credit Card Privacy Case Is Bad News For Mass. Retailers
In Tyler v. Michaels Stores Inc., the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently ruled that asking for customers' ZIP codes during a credit card transaction violates a state consumer protection law. Without a doubt, this is a bad decision for Massachusetts retailers. The active Song-Beverly plaintiff’s bar in California may now set its sights on the Bay State, say attorneys with Sedgwick LLP.
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Tips For Defending Against Data Breach Class Actions
Faced with negligence, fraud, breach of contract and a slew of other claims typically asserted in consumer class action data breach litigation following hacking or a cyberattack, companies should consider a number of best practices to better defend themselves, says Gerry Silver of Sullivan & Worcester LLP.
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How To Defend Your Co. From Gov't Health Care Claims
Federal enforcement of False Claims Act, Stark anti-kickback and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act claims against health care companies are rising rapidly. In order to defray the costs to defend a company from such government investigations, companies should review the tips to getting the most out of their directors and officers and errors and omissions policies, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP.
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How High Court's Clapper Ruling Will Impact Breach Cases
Since the possibility of government surveillance was too speculative to support standing in Clapper v. Amnesty International at the U.S. Supreme Court, companies will have a strong argument that, likewise, the possibility that a criminal may use exposed information from a data breach to commit fraud is likewise speculative, say Douglas Meal and David Cohen of Ropes & Gray LLP.
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Practical Privacy Takeaways From FTC's Deal With HTC
The Federal Trade Commission's privacy law enforcement action against HTC America Inc. is a good example of how quickly and aggressively privacy law and enforcement are evolving. As evidenced by this action and others, failure to incorporate privacy considerations as part of a company’s culture, training and oversight can lead to 20-year regulatory consent orders and/or expensive litigation, say attorneys with Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.
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Watch Out For New Cybersecurity Rules, Defense Contractors
The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that the U.S. Department of Defense establish "rapid reporting" requirements for cleared defense contractors to report cyber intrusions. The forthcoming procedures may facilitate improved cybersecurity information-sharing between the government and industry participants, but also may may heighten concerns about protection of the contractor’s or third parties’ sensitive or proprietary information, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.