California Privacy Act Sparks Website Tracking Technology Suits

• Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys examine state privacy claims
• Defendants should look for consent, terms of use, jurisdiction

The plaintiffs' bar is leveraging old wiretapping statutes to go after significant statutory damages as state privacy laws expand the definition of "personal information" to include back-end data collected by website tracking technology.

Whether responding to individual claims or class actions, companies and their legal advisers should take prompt action to map out the best approach based on their unique website, vendor contracts, and technology at issue.

In M.G. v. Therapymatch, a federal judge in California allowed plaintiff's claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act and California Consumer Privacy Act to proceed against Therapymatch, a clearinghouse for mental-health services doing business as Headway. The company is accused of unlawfully intercepting personal information by using online tracking tools and of