Since 2022, companies have increasingly faced litigation and mass arbitration claims that their website analytics and marketing tools violate the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and state wiretapping laws in Pennsylvania and Florida. Companies are still being slammed with those lawsuits, but plaintiffs are now arguing that websites’ tracking pixels and web analytics tools are collecting data without consent as pen registers or trap and trace devices under CIPA.
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As the defense bar awaits federal district court and appeals court decisions on pen register and trap and trace device claims, companies can take proactive steps to mitigate or successfully fight litigation. Blank Rome partner Harrison Brown said he advises clients to obtain consent before they collect data.
Companies’ privacy policies should also be transparent about the type of user data they collect, Brown added.
“Even if you have those notices on the website it doesn’t hurt to take a look at what the notices says[and ensure] that it clearly and specifically tells the user, ‘Hey, we are using web beacons, we are running pixels.’ Rather than generally saying that data is being collected,” Brown said.
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"Companies Face New Variant of Eavesdropping Privacy Claims," by Victoria Hudgins was published in Lexology Pro on August 20, 2024.