Until California’s legislature provides clearer guardrails, companies should expect continued class action activity under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), targeting common website tracking technologies. Plaintiffs’ firms are actively testing how far this decades-old statute extends in the modern web environment, and courts have not reached a consensus. That uncertainty creates real litigation risk
privacy policy
Can Law Enforcement Access Google Search Data Without a Warrant? Pennsylvania Says Yes
Overview of Commonwealth v. Kurtz
On December 16, 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in general, unprotected Google search records. Commonwealth v. Kurtz, No. 98 MAP 2023 (Pa. Dec. 16, 2025). In this criminal case, law enforcement obtained a so-called “reverse keyword search warrant” from…
California Hits Employer with $1.35M Fine in First-Ever Job Applicant Enforcement Action
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Judge Rules “Tester” Plaintiffs Cannot Bring Wiretap Claims under California Invasion of Privacy Act
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). Rodriguez v. Autotrader.com, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-08735, 2025 WL 65409 (C.D. Cal. 1.8.25). Tester plaintiffs have started to focus on consumer protection…
NewsBank Hit with Class Action over Employee Data Breach
Last week, a class action was filed against NewsBank, Inc., a Florida-based news database company, related to a 2024 breach of employee personal information.
NewsBank provides a database of archived news publications utilized by libraries, higher education institutions, and other organizations. NewsBank suffered a security incident affecting its employees’ personal information between June and July…
Privacy Tip #293 – Location, Location, Location-Based Services
This is not the first post discussing location-based services on mobile phones [see posts here]. And it won’t be the last. After reading my colleague’s post on the priest who resigned from his high-profile position after his location was tied to Grindr, I thought it would be useful to remind readers to think…
Twitter Updates its Privacy Policy
Twitter recently announced updates to its Privacy Policy. The updates are effective on June 18, 2017. By using the social media platform on or after that date, Twitter users will be deemed to have agreed to these updates.
The updates enable Twitter to collect more user data, including about a user’s visits from Twitter…