This week, a proposed data breach class action against Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc. was settled for $2.35 million in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas with approval of the settlement terms by Judge Ed Kinkeade. Dickey’s is a Dallas-based restaurant chain that allegedly failed to implement appropriate security measures to protect
Blackbaud Must Face CCPA Claims in Multi-district Class Action from Data Breach
Blackbaud, which suffered a data breach of its customers’ data in a ransomware attack in 2020, in which it admitted paying the ransom in a double extortion attack [view related posts], is facing multiple class action cases following the attack. The cases have been consolidated in multi-district litigation and now comprise 29 cases.
The…
Keep Biometric Information Laws on the Radar for Compliance
Ever since the enactment of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), we have been watching the development of laws around the collection, use, disclosure and retention of biometric information. In general, BIPA and other biometric information privacy laws enacted since BIPA, require any company that is collecting biometric information, such as fingerprints, voice recognition,…
Dark Patterns and the CCPA: How Your Website Can Comply
The California Attorney General recently approved modified regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). One part of the modified regulations bans “dark patterns” on a website. What are dark patterns? Public comments to the proposed regulations describe dark patterns as deliberate attempts to subvert or impair a consumer’s choice to opt-out on a website.…
Walmart Litigation Provides Guidance on Data Breach Class Action Suits Under the CCPA
Gardiner v. Walmart provided some guidance as to the specificity required to state a claim under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the types of damages that may be recoverable for breaches of California consumer data. On July 10, 2020, Lavarious Gardiner filed a proposed class action against Walmart, alleging that unauthorized individuals accessed…
Additional CCPA Regulations Approved
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced this week that the Office of Administrative Law approved additional California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations, which became effective March 15, 2021.
The additional changes to the regulations primarily affect businesses that sell the personal information of California residents. The changes include a uniform Opt-Out Icon for the…
Federal Court Finds the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Does Not Apply Retroactively, Dismissing Claims Against Walmart Stemming from an Alleged Data Breach
A federal District Court in California recently dismissed a lawsuit against Walmart that arose from an alleged data breach. (Gardiner v. Walmart, Inc., 20-cv-04618-JSW (N.D. Cal., March 5, 2021). Among other things, the court determined that California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) does not apply retroactively, dismissing the CCPA claim because the plaintiff had not…
Marriott Wins CCPA Data Breach Lawsuit
Marriott recently won dismissal of a proposed class action data breach lawsuit alleging several violations, including a violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The case, Arifur Rahman v. Marriott International, Inc. et al., Case No.: 8:20-cv-00654, was dismissed in an Order by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on January 12, 2021.…
Fourth Set of Proposed Modifications to the CCPA Regulations Add an Opt-Out Button for the Sale of Personal Information
On December 11, 2020, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released the fourth set of proposed modifications to the regulations of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). This fourth set of proposed modifications is in response to comments received to the third set of modifications that were released on October 12, 2020. According to…
Is Your Business Collecting COVID-19-Related Employee Data? If So, You May Need to Update Your CCPA Employee Notice
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires businesses covered by the CCPA to notify their employees of the categories of personal information the business collects about employees and the purposes for which the categories of personal information are used. The categories of personal information are broadly defined in the CCPA and include personal information such…