Until the California legislature takes action, the
plaintiff's bar will continue filing lawsuits challenging
companies' website tracking tools under the California Invasion
of Privacy Act, or CIPA. As of now, courts don't agree on how
far this old California privacy law actually goes, which means
companies should take action.
The CIPA was passed in 1967 to stop secret wiretapping by law
enforcement and individuals. Today, the plaintiff's bar has
seized on the CIPA to file class actions that challenge modern
website tools like chat features, session-replay software, and
analytics code, arguing that these tools violate the CIPA by
secretly recording how visitors interact with a company's
website. One of the primary issues that litigants grapple with is
whether these tools actually "listen in" on confidential
communications without proper consent when, in fact, many companies
disclose the use of these tools in their Terms of Use or Privacy
Policies, or both. Some courts
