Hernandez v. Path, Inc. By Kathleen McGuinness – Edited by Charlie Stiernberg Hernandez v. Path, Inc., No. 12-CV-01515 YGR (N.D. Cal. Oct. 17, 2012) Slip opinion In a class-action privacy lawsuit over a photo sharing app’s alleged unauthorized access of user data, the District Court for the Northern District of California held that the plaintiff has Article III standing, but dismissed six of the ten claims. The court held that neither a slight loss of phone battery life nor hypothetical ... Read More...

District Court Requires Warrant for Cell Phone Location Data By Michael Hoven – Edited by Jonathan Allred In the Matter of an Application of the United States of America for an Order Authorizing the Release of Historical Cell-Site Information, 10-MC-897 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 22, 2011) Slip opinion The United States District Court of the Eastern District of New York denied the government’s request to order Verizon Wireless to turn over 113 days of customer location data which, according to the government, ... Read More...

Stored Communications Act Protects Facebook and MySpace Users’ Private Communications By Kathryn Freund – Edited by Jad Mills Crispin v. Christian Audigier, Inc., CV 09-09509-MMM-JEMx (C.D. Cal. May 26, 2010) Order The Central District of California reversed and quashed Magistrate Judge McDermott’s order granting a subpoena to obtain private Facebook and MySpace messages and vacated and remanded his order granting a subpoena to obtain Facebook wall postings and MySpace  comments. Judge Morrow held that private messages sent using Facebook and ... Read More...

Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc in Quon v. Arch Wireless Text Message Privacy Case By Debbie Rosenbaum — Edited by Christina Hayes Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. Ninth Circuit, No. 07-55282 Order denying rehearing en banc Opinion concurring in denial of rehearing en banc Opinion dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc On January 27, 2009, the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Quon v. Arch Wireless, a case decided by a Ninth Circuit panel in June ... Read More...

Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted on Federal Charges by Tennessee Grand Jury By Andrew Ungberg –- Edited by Jon Choate United States v. Kernell E.D. Tenn., October 7, 2008, No. 3:08-CR-142 Indictment On October 7, 2008 a Tennessee grand jury charged David C. Kernell with violating 18 U.S.C. § 2701 (part of the Stored Communications Act) and 18 U.S.C § 1030(a)(2) (a subsection of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) for allegedly accessing the Yahoo e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah ... Read More...