Privacy

Google Tries to End Browser Privacy Violation Lawsuit

Google is trying again to end an advertisement tracking privacy violation court case brought against it in 2012, this time with a settlement offer of US$5.5 million (A$7.3 million). At the heart of the legal action is Google’s bypass of the default cookie settings in Apple’s Safari for iOS and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browsers. Cookies are small text files that web servers can place on …


ESPN Can’t Get Out of NFL Player’s Privacy Lawsuit Over Reporter’s Tweet

ESPN is no Gawker, but the sports giant is now facing the prospect of a trial in Florida that has shades of the litigation brought by Hulk Hogan over an invasion of privacy. New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is suing ESPN and star reporter Adam Schefter over a tweet that revealed an amputated right finger as a result of a July 4 celebration last year. The NFL star asserts he …


Peter Thiel Ties Gawker Lawsuit to Fight Against Revenge Porn

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel is defending his financial support for litigation targeting Gawker Media for its reporting on celebrities by likening it to efforts to crack down on privacy violations like “revenge porn.” In a New York Times op-ed on Monday defending his decision to fund a case that ultimately forced the media company to put itself up for sale, Thiel cited the Intimate Privacy …


Glassdoor Sued for Email Gaffe

Glassdoor is facing a class-action lawsuit after the company review site accidentally revealed the email addresses of more than half a million of its users. Glassdoor issued an email update that mistakenly included customer contact information. Customers’ email addresses were visible in the cc line of the email, as opposed to being confidentially
hidden in the bcc line.


Lawsuit Filed Against Snapchat for Using Biometric Data Without Consent

Two men filed a class-action lawsuit against Snapchat under a 2008 Illinois state law that requires a company to obtain written consent before using an individual’s biometric data, according to a report by Inc. Initially filed by plaintiffs Jose Luis Martinez and Malcolm Neal in Los Angeles County court in May, the case has recently been moved to U.S. District Court for the …


Google Dodges Parents’ Web Privacy Appeal in Class Action Lawsuit

Google and Viacom on Monday defeated an appeal in a nationwide class action lawsuit by parents who claimed the companies illegally tracked the online activity of children under the age of 13 who watched videos and played video games on Nickelodeon’s website. By a 3-0 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., and Viacom Inc. …


Court Approves $400M Class Action Against Facebook

Israel’s Central District Court has approved a $400 million privacy class-action suit against Facebook, ruling that the company’s terms-of-use requirement for all lawsuits to be heard in California was invalid, Haaretz reports. The suit alleged that the company both breached privacy protocols by targeting advertisements based off of users’ private posts, and failed to register its database in …


Woman Alleges in Proposed Class Action That Sister Breached Patient Privacy

An Ontario woman has launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against a hospital, an ophthalmologist and his assistant — who happens to be her sister — alleging a “serious and prolonged” invasion of privacy which may have potentially impacted a number of patients. In a statement of claim filed in a Toronto court, Katie Mallinson alleges her sister, Lisa Lyons, used her access to …


Facebook Sued for Illegally Scanning Private Messages

Facebook is in trouble again. The social network may have violated federal privacy laws by scanning private messages without user consent. A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Northern California District Court, over allegations that the company systematically scans its users’ private messages for links.