In-House Counsel Asks California Appeals Court To Resolve CIPA Privacy Questions Amid Digital Wiretapping Litigation Flood | Fisher Phillips
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/in-house-counsel-asks-california-3795195/
Publish Date: 2026-04-30 20:02:00
Source Domain: www.jdsupra.com
The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is urging the California Court of Appeal to resolve growing questions around whether the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) should be applied to commonplace technologies like cookies and tracking pixels. The decades-old California privacy law is driving tens of thousands of arbitrations, demand letters, and lawsuits against businesses that use basic website tracking tools. This trend is draining time and resources from in-house counsel trying to advise their businesses across the country, ACC told the court in an amicus brief April 8. Without clarity on CIPA, in-house counsel will continue to be pulled away from other essential legal compliance work and businesses will be forced to seek court orders just to operate their websites. The brief, drafted by FP’s Usama Kahf, Darcey Groden, and David Shannon on behalf of ACC, argues that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) should be governing California’s privacy regime, as it explicitly addresses website data sharing and cookie usage. The brief shines a light on the litigation minefield businesses with California-based customers are navigating when it comes to privacy compliance and how it’s impacting their real-world operations. This Insight will cover everything you need to know about the issue and how it could potentially affect your business.
How Did We Get Here?
CIPA was enacted in 1967 to address wiretapping and eavesdropping. It contains broad language banning “intercepting” communications without consent and prohibits “pen registers” and “trap and trace devices” absent a court order. Because CIPA predates the modern internet, it contains no clear statutory provisions or legal guidance tailored to website tracking technologies or regulations.
CIPA was amended in 2015 to prohibit use of “pen registers” and “trap and trace” devices without a court order. Although the internet and website tracking technology was in wide use at…
