In the interest of presenting different perspectives on privacy issues, I note that Kashmir Hill does not seem to share the reaction of privacy advocates who have cheered a decision by the California Supreme Court. The headline of her column, “A Ridiculous California Court Ruling: Zip Codes are Private” was my first hint that she…
Category: Court
CMLP and Cyberlaw Clinic Urge First Circuit to Affirm First Amendment Right to Make Cellphone Recording of Police
David Ardia writes: With the help of Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, the Citizen Media Law Project and a coalition of media and advocacy organizations submitted an amicus curiae brief last week to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a case involving a lawyer who was arrested for using his cellphone camera to…
Consumer groups cheer court’s ruling on consumer privacy protections
There’s been a lot of media coverage of a decision reported here yesterday in which the California Supreme Court held that Williams-Sonoma violated a state law when it requested and recorded a customer’s zip code during a credit card transaction in a store. In a joint press release, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Consumer Federation of…
Businesses can’t request and record your zip code in card present transactions – Calif. Sup. Ct.
Interesting opinion from the Supreme Court of California that a zip code may constitute “personal identification information.” From Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores: The Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 (Credit Card Act) (Civ. Code, § 1747 et seq.) is “designed to promote consumer protection.” (Florez v. Linens ’N Things, Inc. (2003) 108 Cal.App.4th 447, 450…