The number of cases alleging violations of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act has risen in recent years and seems likely to continue to grow after an October decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, privacy lawyers said in interviews. The VPPA was intended to protect the privacy of an individual’s video store rentals. However, in the past decade or so, its reach has widened to include streaming services, said Matthew Wolfe, a Shook Hardy privacy attorney.
Twenty-five privacy decisions from October to December show a significant uptick in the number of pixel-based court rulings on wiretapping issued nationwide, according to Husch Blackwell’s Dustin Taylor and Owen Davis in their monthly data privacy litigation report Monday. Ten of the decisions cited in the report were about pixel-wiretapping decisions: four on chat-wiretapping decisions, four on secure reliable transport-wiretapping, five on pen registry/tap and trace decisions and two on Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) decisions.
New York state legislators opened their 2025 session Wednesday, introducing comprehensive and healthcare-focused privacy bills, among other measures related to consumer data. Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D) offered the 2025 version of the New York Privacy Act. However, some of it is "not aligned with other comprehensive privacy laws,” which could make compliance a challenge for businesses, warned Hinshaw & Culbertson privacy attorney Cathy Mulrow-Peattie in an email Wednesday.
GameStop and the plaintiffs in a class-action suit alleging violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) agreed to dismiss the lawsuit, the parties announced in a joint stipulation of dismissal at U.S. District Court of New York Monday.