California Courts Set Privacy Litigation Standards for Big Tech

Federal courts in California are lowering the bar for consumers to bring privacy suits against the big tech giants, in effect setting the standard for how such cases are handled, attorneys and academics said.

Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have faced dozens of consumer class claims in California federal courts in recent years, after a series of high-profile privacy and security breaches. Plaintiffs have had an easier time convincing big tech’s home courts, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, that they have standing ...