Rebecca Day

The office of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) and robocall defendant Smartbiz Telecom seek a continuance of their trial for at least 90 days, said their joint motion Feb. 13 for continuance (docket 1:22-cv-23945) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami. The court on Nov. 30 rescheduled the trial to start during the two-week period beginning March 4. The trial is set for a five-day period and will involve “novel and complex technical and legal issues” unique to the telecom field and federal law and regulation, it said. The continuance is being requested so that Smartbiz can secure additional counsel for the trial, and numerous technical issues in the cross motions for summary judgment can be resolved on their merits at trial, said the motion. The extension is sought “in good faith and not for purposes of delay.” Moody’s December 2022 complaint alleges that Smartbiz is “one of the most prolific transmitters of illegal robocalls” in the U.S., and that the VoIP company violated the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and other statutes, plus the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (see 2212060034).

Home Depot allows Google to access, record, read and learn the contents of customers' calls via its Cloud Contact Center AI (CCAI), in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 2:24-cv-01253) against the two companies in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles.

Online dating company Match Group uses “powerful technologies and hidden algorithms” to design its websites with “addictive, game-like design features” that “lock users into a perpetual pay-to-play loop,” alleged six plaintiffs in a class action Wednesday (docket 3:24-cv-00888) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco.

California Northstate University waited 10 months to inform victims of a February 2023 data breach, causing them risks “for their respective lifetimes,” alleged a negligence complaint Thursday (docket 2:24-at-00158) in U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Sacramento.

Social media companies defended their platforms Thursday against allegations in New York City’s Wednesday public nuisance lawsuit (docket 24ST-cv-03643) blaming Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok for rising mental health issues among schoolchildren. The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.

Florida’s Senate Bill 7072 is a “compendium of First Amendment problems,” and Texas’ HB-20 social media law “interferes with Petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” said petitioners NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in reply briefs Thursday before the U.S. Supreme Court.

T-Mobile’s transfer of two customers’ cellphone numbers to a third-party device via a SIM swap, without their permission or authorization, allowed a fraudster to unlawfully access their accounts and steal more than $50,000, said a Friday negligence complaint (docket 1:24-cv-00627) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta.

Xfinity customers must provide personally identifiable information online before they can use Comcast's services, and they are entitled to “security" of that PII, said a class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-00639) brought by a 15-year Comcast customer in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Parchinskya first learned Jan. 31 that her private information was exposed in an April 27 data breach of Emmanuel College’s information network, said her class action Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-10314) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston. The breach was discovered on Jan. 16, said a notice posted by the Maine Attorney General’s office.

Amazon uses a “deceptive scheme to keep its profits -- and consumer prices -- high,” alleged a class action Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-00169) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.