Solove: Consumers' Lack of Standing in Privacy Lawsuits Lets Companies Run Amok
Privacy laws won’t be effective until legislators strengthen consumers’ standing in lawsuits, George Washington University Law School professor Daniel Solove said Thursday during a New America event.
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Courts are “incredibly reluctant to recognize privacy laws” in part because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in TransUnion v. Ramirez, he said. In that case, the high court found that only consumers whose credit-reporting information was shared with third parties could sue for damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Consumers whose information was shared internally didn't have standing. Solove said this has made courts unwilling to find harm or injury, even when there’s a private right of action.
If privacy laws are “not actually enforced, companies are just going to do whatever the hell they want,” he said. “And then only the most egregious of egregious cases are going to be enforced. So companies know” that if their practices aren’t “horrifically, heinously, awfully bad, [they're] ok.”