Appeals Court Greenlights Privacy Suit Over Facebook’s Invasive Web Tracking

14 09 2020
EPIC
April 9, 2020
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Facebook users whose privacy was violated by Facebook’s tracking of web browsing can bring suit against the social media platform. The court held that consumers had the legal right, or “standing,” to sue Facebook and that most legal claims could go forward.

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Financial Data Aggregator Faces Consumer Privacy Suit over “Surreptitious” Collection of Banking Information

1 09 2020

Proskauer New Media and Technology Blog

Last week, a putative privacy-related class action was filed in California district court against financial analytics firm Envestnet, Inc. (“Envestnet”), which operates Yodlee, Inc. (“Yodlee”). (Wesch v. Yodlee Inc., No. 20-05991 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 25, 2020)). According to the complaint, Yodlee is one of the largest financial data aggregators in the world and through its software platforms, which are built into various fintech products offered by financial institutions, it aggregates financial data such as bank balances and credit card transaction histories from individuals in the United States. The crux of the suit is that Yodlee collects and then sells access to such anonymized financial data without meaningful notice to consumers, and stores or transmits such data without adequate security, all in violation of California and federal privacy laws.

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Financial Data Aggregator Faces Consumer Privacy Suit over “Surreptitious” Collection of Banking Information

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Federal Court Rejects Challenge to Maine Broadband Privacy Law

18 08 2020
Epic
July 7, 2020
 
A federal court has rejected a challenge from internet services providers to Maine’s broadband privacy law. Enacted last year, the law prohibits broadband providers from using, disclosing, or selling consumers’ personal data without express consent. The ISPs had argued that the Maine law conflicted with Congress’s 2017 overturning of broadband privacy rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission and the FCC’s 2018 disclaimer of regulatory authority over broadband providers. But the ISPs’ “attempt to manufacture a conflict in this case is unavailing,” Judge Lance E. Walker wrote. The court also refused to hold that the Maine law violates the First Amendment or is unconstitutionally vague. EPIC has long advocated for comprehensive privacy legislation that would protect states’ ability to enact stronger privacy laws.

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Supreme Court to Hear Arguments about Controversial Consumer Privacy Settlement

14 01 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in Frank v. Gaos, a class action settlement that provided no benefit to Internet users. Google disclosed user search histories to third parties without consent, a practice that could violate federal and state privacy laws. But under the terms of the settlement, Google “will not be required or requested to make any changes” to its business practices. Also, no funds were provided to the Internet users on whose behalf the case was brought.  . . .

A federal appeals court narrowly approved the settlement, 2-1, with the dissenting judge warning that courts must be on the lookout “not only for explicit collusion, but also for more subtle signs that class counsel have allowed pursuit of their own self-interests.”

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D.C. Circuit to Hear Arguments in Case on Right to Informational Privacy

14 01 2019

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Friday in a case about the 2015 data breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel and Management, which affected 22 million federal employees, their friends, and their family members. EPIC filed an amicus brief in the case, joined by forty-four technical experts and legal scholars (members of the EPIC Advisory Board). In the brief, EPIC said that “when personal data is collected by a government agency, that agency has a constitutional obligation to protect the personal data it has obtained.” In the 2011 case NASA v. Nelson, EPIC urged the Supreme Court to limit data collection by federal agencies, citing the growing risk of data breach in the federal government.

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Former Equifax executive charged with illegally trading before massive data breach was made public

16 03 2018

Washington Post

March 14, 2018

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Equifax executive with insider trading, alleging that he profited from confidential information about the massive breach at the company that compromised sensitive data of 148 million people.

Jun Ying, former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax, faces civil and criminal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

”Ying used confidential information to conclude that his company had suffered a massive data breach, and he dumped his stock before the news went public,” Richard R. Best, Director of the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office, said in a statement.

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Supreme Court Leaves Data Breach Decision In Place

22 02 2018

The Supreme Court has denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Carefirst, Inc. v. Attias, a case concerning standing to sue in data breach cases. Consumers had sued health insurer Carefirst after faulty security practices allowed hackers to obtain 1.1 million customer records. EPIC filed an amicus brief backing the consumers, arguing that if “companies fail to invest in reasonable security measures, then consumers will continue to face harm from data breaches.” The federal appeals court agreed with EPIC and held that consumers may sue companies that fail to safeguard their personal data. Carefirst appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court chose not to take the case. EPIC regularly files amicus briefs defending standing in consumer privacy cases, most recently in Eichenberger v. ESPN, where the Ninth Circuit also held for consumers, as well as Gubala v. Time Warner Cable and In re SuperValu Customer Data Security Breach Litigation.

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Catsouras family appeals grisly toll road photo case

4 02 2018
August 26, 2008 When Christos Catsouras arrived at the horrific accident scene, his 18-year-old daughter pinned somewhere in the crumpled remains of his black Porsche, officers from the California Highway Patrol kept him behind the police tape.

Later, when officers drove from the crash site on the 241 toll road in Lake Forest to his home in Ladera Ranch, Catsouras asked of his daughter Nikki, “Did she get hurt?”

“She’s unidentifiable,” a CHP officer told him, according to his account. “You can’t see her body.”

Days later, at the click of a computer mouse, strangers from around the world were able to see, in high-resolution color, graphic pictures of Nikki’s decapitated remains — the result, the CHP later admitted, of two employees improperly leaking the images onto the Internet.

Tuesday, in a continuing saga that has garnered national attention, lawyers for the Catsouras family filed an appeal in the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana. The family seeks to overturn a judge’s dismissal in March of their civil lawsuit against the CHP and two dispatchers.

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Bose headphones have been spying on customers, lawsuit claims

3 02 2018

Washington Post

April 21, 2017

Bose was taking notes on what songs and podcasts its customers were listening to without permission — and selling that information to a data mining company, the lawsuit claims.

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EPIC Challenges Facebook Privacy Settlement

3 02 2018

EPIC has filed an amicus brief with a federal appeals court urging the court to reject a proposed class action settlement over Facebook’s practice of scanning private messages. EPIC challenged the settlement because it did not require Facebook to stop scanning private messages. In fact, the company can continue scanning messages by simply burying a notice on its website. Also, there was no compensation to Internet users for the prior violation of federal and state laws. EPIC is dedicated to class action fairness in privacy cases and has objected to many similar settlements that failed to provide actual benefits to Internet users. EPIC recently opposed a settlement with Google that allows the company to continue tracking web users. EPIC also opposed a settlement with Facebook in 2014 that allowed the company to continue an unlawful practice.

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