Hi, CIPA World! Kelly here again, with a new case on the use of website tracking technologies.
In Julie Jones v. Skullcandy, Inc., Judge Sammartino denied Skullcandy Inc.’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint. Julie Jones, individually & on behalf of similarly situated individuals, Plaintiffs, v. Skullcandy Inc., Defendant., No. 25-CV-1759 JLS (BLM), 2026 WL 699819, (S.D. Cal. Mar. 12, 2026). The court found that Jones had provided sufficient, specific allegations as to how Skullcandy’s website tracking technology works and that it occurred in real time while users were on the website.
Skullcandy owns and operates the website, Skullcandy.com, selling consumers headphones and audio equipment. Skullcandy.com allegedly installed certain invisible code including Meta Pixel, Google DoubleClick, and Google analytics to allow third parties like Google and Facebook to monitor Skullcandy.com users’ website activity. These tracking technologies pair event data and intercept communications with users’ social media identities by transmitting to third party’s complete URL’s that disclose the user’s personally identifiable information, browsing, and purchase history to target them with specific advertisements.
On February 7, 2025, Jones purchased Skullcandy earbuds from the website as a user on Skullcandy.com. Jones then filed a complaint, alleging that she was harmed at the time of purchasing her earbuds on the website due to the tracking technologies being used without receiving her consent to the disclosure of the information gathered. Further, she alleged that Skullcandy had monetized off this data to enhance their advertising, consumer targeting, and conversion rates.
Under CIPA Section 631(a), liability is imposed where a person “willfully and without consent of all parties….attempts to read, or to learn the contents or meaning of any message….while the same is in transit.”
Judge Sammartino relied on a recent case, Semien v. PubMatic, Inc, No. 25-CV-3164-SI, 2026 WL 216333 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 27, 2026) to determine whether the allegations were sufficient to show that the tracking took place while the communication was in transit. This required that the plaintiff provide specific, detailed descriptions of how the software at issue worked to collect the data in real time.
Applying this requirement, the court found that Jones had provided detailed explanations of how the tracking technologies collected her data in real time, including information about what pages users view, the items they interact with and any purchase or steps taken at checkout. One such allegation provided by Jones was that “every pageview or button click is tagged with a persistent ID, ensuring that Google can systematically link each action to a specific user profile.”
Under CIPA Section 632, “a plaintiff must show that there was (1) an electronic recording of (2) a confidential communication and (3) all parties did not consent.” Communication is deemed confidential if the party to the conversation held an objectively reasonable expectation that the conversation was not being overheard or recorded.
To determine a reasonable expectation of privacy, Judge Sammartino relied on Smith v. Yeti Coolers LLC, 754 F. Supp. 3d 933, 943 (N.D. Cal. 2024). The case provides that a determination of whether a plaintiff has a reasonable expectation of privacy “is a ‘fact-intensive inquiry’ that is often too difficult to resolve at the pleading stage.”
In applying this, the Court found that Jones had sufficiently alleged a reasonable expectation of privacy in the type of data that was being collected by Skullcandy’s use of tracking technologies to not be shared with third parties.
Because Jones alleged a detailed provision on how the tracking technologies worked to collect data in real time and the fact intensive inquiry requirement to determine a reasonable expectation of privacy, the Court denied Skullcandy’s motion.
Based on the case here, it is apparent that claims under CIPA Sections 631(a) and 632 will likely remain through pleadings stages if a plaintiff sufficiently alleges the details of how tracking technologies work to collect data in real time.
CIPAWorld 