Need some good news about the fight against Corporations violating your privacy? This is a great ruling! This gives States big teeth to go against companies who violate state laws that protect privacy.
The key issue was whether Shopify’s actions were “expressly aimed” at California. Shopify argued that it was “mere happenstance” that its conduct affected a consumer in California …"
Ninth Circuit Court:
“Pre-internet, there would be no doubt that the California courts would have specific personal jurisdiction over a third party who physically entered a Californian’s home by deceptive means to take personal information from the Californian’s files for its own commercial gain. Here, though Shopify’s entry into the state of California is by electronic means …”
"… not “mere happenstance” because, among other things, Shopify allegedly knew plaintiff’s location either prior to or shortly after installing its initial tracking software on his device as well as those of other Californians.
#EFF #Shopify
Pre-internet, there would be no doubt that the California courts would have specific personal jurisdiction over a third party who physically entered a Californian’s home by deceptive means to take personal information from the Californian’s files for its own commercial gain. Here, though Shopify’s entry into the state of California is by electronic means, its surreptitious interception of Briskin’s personal identifying information certainly is a relevant contact with the forum state.
Established norms for things like privacy and consent should have carried over into the online space. They didn’t, unfortunately - maybe this is because people viewed the Internet as “not real life,” but it is now clear that was a huge legal and cultural oversight.
