Jason, Jacob, and Jaz have prepared four brief posts on the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), an old law now applied to new technology. With damages of $5,000 per violation or treble damages, CIPA lawsuits cannot be ignored. If you have a website and want to protect your company from litigation costs, check out these posts and contact us with any questions.
The California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) penalizes those “who willfully and without the consent of all parties to the communication . . . read, or attempt to read, or to learn the contents or meaning of any message, report, or communication.” Cal. Penal Code § 631 (cleaned up).
This rule seems sensible when applied to someone surreptitiously eavesdropping on a phone conversation. The law was passed in the 1960s to protect phone conversations from wiretaps, and if I am secretly listening in on your phone call, then my conduct may fall under the law.Continue Reading Mini-Series on CIPA – Part 3: Can I Eavesdrop on My Own Conversation?