Washington’s Supreme Court Rejects Website Pixel Claim

Washington’s Supreme Court rejected a claim that Seattle Children’s Hospital violated the Washington Privacy Act by using pixels to track activity on its public website. In its October 8, 2026 decision in Baker v. Seattle Children’s Hospital, the court held that the website clicks and searches tracked by the pixel did not involve communications “between two or more individuals” as defined by the law. Instead, each website visitor interacted with an automated system, not another individual.

The proposed class action was brought by a group of parents that alleged they searched the hospital’s website for information about their children’s medical conditions, health care providers, and clinic hours. They said the site’s pixels recorded their clicks, searches, and page views and sent the information to the third party who had placed those pixels for targeted advertising. Because the case involved a motion to dismiss, the court accepted the complaint’s factual allegations as true. It did