Skye Witley reports: Meta Platforms Inc. must defend claims it violated an Illinois biometric privacy law by capturing its users’ voices, a California federal judge ruled in denying the social media platform’s dismissal motion. Judge Susan Illston was convinced that voice recording tools embedded in Meta’s communication platform, Messenger, qualified as “voiceprints” protected from nonconsensual collection…
Category: Breaches
Google Must Defend Revived Claim Over Use of Android Phone Data
Peter Hayes reports: Android cellphone users won partial reinstatement of a proposed class action alleging Google LLC illegally consumes the data they purchase from their cellular providers each month. The plaintiffs alleged Google “has programmed the Android operating system to secretly send and receive a large amount of information to and from Google using Plaintiffs’ cellular data.” They asserted claims of…
BNSF Settles Illinois Biometric Privacy Case for $75 Million (1)
Stephen Joyce and Skye Witley report: BNSF Railway Co. Monday agreed to pay $75 million to settle a landmark Illinois biometrics privacy case after a jury found the company violated the privacy rights of thousands of employees, a decrease from an initial award $228 million. “The Settlement Agreement before the Court, if approved, will resolve the…
FTC Order Will Ban Avast from Selling Browsing Data for Advertising Purposes, Require It to Pay $16.5 Million Over Charges the Firm Sold Browsing Data After Claiming Its Products Would Block Online Tracking
The Federal Trade Commission will require software provider Avast to pay $16.5 million and prohibit the company from selling or licensing any web browsing data for advertising purposes to settle charges that the company and its subsidiaries sold such information to third parties after promising that its products would protect consumers from online tracking. In…