Major Win in CIPA Case Signals Higher Hurdles for Privacy Plaintiffs: What You Should Do to Protect Your Organization
In a significant win for businesses fighting CIPA claims, a California federal court just held that searching sensitive health terms and distributing that information to third parties is not a legally protectable privacy interest, foreclosing a plaintiff from pursuing a class action lawsuit. Although the court allowed the plaintiff to amend his complaint and fix its deficiencies, the February 23 decision marks a significant shift in evaluating a plaintiff’s so-called injuries in these cases. Rather than accepting plaintiff’s threadbare allegations of harm, the court in Maghoney v. Dotdash Meredith Inc. dug into the allegations of the complaint and questioned whether the plaintiff had actually alleged awareness that his information had been shared with third parties and whether any data shared could have been associated with his name or other personally identifiable information. Here is what you need to know to use this decision to successfully defend against CIPA lawsuits, ...