What is CIPA?

The California Invasion of Privacy Act is one of the most dangerous statutes on the books.

The statute covers various forms of recording or eavesdropping of electronic communications. At a high level it forbids two things: i) recording certain phone calls without consent of all parties; and ii) allowing third-parties to eavesdrop on communications–including third parties that learn the contents of web session interactions.

A violation of the statute carries a penalty of between $2,500.00 and $5,000.00. Class litigation appears to be permissible under the statute.

The recent blast of CIPA litigation is driven by arguments that interactions with websites may trigger CIPA where the consumer is in California and has their interactions with a website recorded or analyzed without their express permission.