Year In Review: 2023 Data Protection Litigation Trends

2023 was an active year for data protection-related litigation. Plaintiffs continued to advance creative theories of liability against businesses, using both older and more established privacy laws (such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Biometric Information Privacy Act) and newer laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act). Plaintiffs also continued to bring lawsuits against companies after data breaches, while also looking to explore causes of action related to companies' use of web trackers.

This client alert summarizes notable data protection-related litigation trends from 2023 in all of these categories. Businesses should continue to pay attention to these topics in 2024 (and beyond), as plaintiffs are likely to become more active in this space, especially given the imminent effective date of Washington's My Health My Data Act (which creates a private right of action for privacy violations related to consumer health data).