Seen on FourthAmendment.com, a decision from the Eastern District of New York: “The government seeks a warrant to search two cellular phones that have been in its possession for more than two months since the time to execute a prior search warrant lapsed. In United States v. Smith, 967 F.3d 198 (2d Cir. 2020), the...

The Associated Press and Anthony Izaguirre report: More than 20 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Monday to block it from getting wide access to the personal information of millions of recipients of a benefits program for low-income families. The case is the latest legal action between states and the federal government...

Carly Nairn reports: A federal judge has mostly tossed a privacy case brought against LinkedIn over the company’s Insight Tag. Users said the feature — which links actions on third-party advertiser websites to specific LinkedIn profiles — collected sensitive medical data without their permission. But Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Davila mostly granted the company’s...

Jill Canfield and Tyler R. Bridegan of Womble Bond Dickinson write: The California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), a 1967 penal code law originally designed to protect the privacy rights of California residents, has become the basis for a recent surge in demands and lawsuits. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are suing companies across the country for using...

Joseph J. Lazzarotti of JacksonLewis writes: If you have heard of CIPA, BIPA, GIPA, or TCPA litigation, you may have an idea of where this post is headed. These acronyms reference federal and state laws that permit a private right of action for certain privacy-related claims, affording successful plaintiffs with statutory remedies. In a recent case, Bartholomew...

The Federal Trade Commission, joined by Utah and California, by and through Los Angeles County Counsel, today sued Hims & Hers alleging that the telehealth provider shared consumers’ sensitive health information about medical conditions with third-party advertising platforms despite claiming its services maintain consumers’ privacy and deceives users about its billing and cancellation practices. In...

Zack Whittaker reports: A U.S. magistrate judge last month denied to issue a search warrant allowing federal agents to snoop on the phones of “thousands of uninvolved, unsuspecting individuals” across Ohio in an effort to identify a suspected criminal’s device, a rare rebuke by a court blocking the use of a cell-site simulator. In the ruling,...

Suzanne Smalley reports: The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that Bahrain can’t hide behind state immunity to block a lawsuit filed by two dissidents alleging the government infected their devices with spyware. Saeed Shehabi and Moosa Mohammed allege Bahrain secretly installed FinSpy spyware on their laptops, likely in 2011. Government agents then spied on...

Legal intern Suzanne Castillo was the principal author of this post by Sophia Cope on EFF: The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which EFF filed an amicus brief, alongside the national ACLU, its Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia affiliates, and the National Association of Criminal Defense...

Zack Whittaker reports: The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting an American for allegedly providing U.S. border authorities with a passcode that wiped the contents of his phone, according to an indictment and media reports. This is thought to be the first known case in the United States where federal prosecutors have charged someone for the...

Emery Glover reports: Iowa is now among 42 states that have reached a settlement with the genetics and biotech company, 23andMe. A lawsuit against 23andMe was filed in 2023 after a massive data breach that impacted nearly 7 million people, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s office. The breach reportedly exposed customers’ genetic ancestry information, personal information...

Zach Whittaker writes: A U.S. magistrate judge last month denied to issue a search warrant allowing federal agents to snoop on the phones of “thousands of uninvolved, unsuspecting individuals” across Ohio in an effort to identify a suspected criminal’s device, a rare rebuke by a court blocking the use of a cell-site simulator. In the ruling,...

Beth Wang reports: New York State courts, starting July 20, will require anyone entering their facilities to give up their smart glasses at the door. The ban applies to all headwear and eyewear — including prescription glasses — that contain a camera, microphone, computer, or other recording technology, the court said in a one-page memo sent to...

Robert Booth reports: The UK information commissioner who resigned over sexual harassment and bullying claims is understood to be taking legal action against a woman who flagged his conduct. The science and technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said she was “appalled” by the fact that John Edwards was preparing to serve legal papers on one of the...

This post on FourthAmendment.com caught my eye: A search warrant for an iPhone 6S did not authorize a search of an iPhone 13 with the same phone number. Also, the good faith exception does not apply. Alleged exigency doesn’t save this search. United States v. González-Arocho, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 20100 (1st Cir. July 9, 2026)....

Here’s another one of those rulings where you’re not surprised, but you wish it had been otherwise. As seen on FourthAmendment.com: Scrolling through defendant’s cell phone was a reasonable border search. United States v. Eta, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 19568 (7th Cir. July 6, 2026): Indeed, we agreed with the First Circuit’s determination that “warrantless electronic...

Steve Alder writes: Memorial Healthcare Services, a nonprofit healthcare provider serving patients in Southern California, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over its use of pixels and other tracking, web analytics, and advertising technologies on its website. The tools are alleged to have been added to the website without the knowledge or consent...

Christopher Brown reports: Health-technology provider Veradigm Inc. must face a proposed class action alleging it shared patients’ health information with Google LLC without consent in violation of state and federal privacy law. The plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Veradigm disclosed their personal health information, and adequately pleaded claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the California Invasion of...

Mikeie Honda Reiland reports: A suite of recent class action lawsuits in state and federal courts seeks to hold large healthcare corporations accountable for exposing or leaking patients’ personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). On June 11 in Davidson County Circuit Court, three Jane Does filed suit against CareNow, which operates more...

Christopher Brown reports: Healthline Media LLP must face two claims of a proposed class action alleging it shared consumers’ health information with TikTok Inc. and Microsoft Corp. without consent in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Lead plaintiff Daniel Gliksman established that he had standing to sue in federal court, and adequately pleaded...