Companies that store your personally identifying information have a legal obligation to keep that data secure. And nobody has the right to record your telephone conversations without warning. Privacy laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers, patients, and employees who have been victimized by data breaches or unlawful recordings. Privacy lawsuits allow victims to recover their financial losses and, in some cases, statutory damages. Moreover, a lawsuit can force companies with unlawful policies to change their ways.
Keller Grover has deep experience in privacy protection litigation and particular expertise in dealing with the following issues:
- Unlawful recording of phone calls
Under California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, Californians generally can’t have their telephone calls monitored or recorded unless all parties to the call are aware of the monitoring or recording. This law applies to telephone calls involving California residents that originate both inside and outside of California.
Nevertheless, many companies that have toll-free hotlines continue to violate the law and illegally record thousands of hotline callers’ conversations without their notice or consent. We have brought a number of actions against companies that have been alleged to have unlawfully recorded consumers, including Wyndham®, InterContinental® Hotels and Cabela’s.
- Medical data breaches
Medical records are among the most private information a person can have. They’re also a juicy target for hackers and scammers. Accordingly, a whole host of federal and state laws require healthcare providers and other companies that maintain electronic patient medical records to properly secure that information. Under California law, companies must give patients timely notice in the event they suffer a data breach or negligently release or disclose medical information.
Often, thousands of patient records are compromised in any given incident. As leaders in the field of medical information privacy litigation, we have helped clients in numerous medical data breach class action cases—including lawsuits against Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, Health Net, and St. Joseph Health Systems—recover compensation.
- W-2 data breaches
If you’re an employee, you’ve received a W-2 tax form. The law requires employers to keep employee W-2 information secure and to provide employees with timely notice in the event of a data breach. When an employer breaches either obligation, the consequences for employees can be severe.
W-2s contain employees’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and salary information. So it’s no wonder there’s been a sharp increase in the number of cyberattacks targeting companies’ W-2 information. Sometimes hackers make off with this valuable data by breaking into corporate computer systems. In other cases, scam artists simply trick employees into handing over the information with “spoofed” emails pretending to be from a high-ranking company executive.
Regardless of how criminals get hold of W-2 information, they can quickly exploit it—often by taking out loans, opening credit cards, or filing false tax returns in order to collect the refunds. Employees whose W-2 data is stolen can have their credit ruined and may have to spend many stressful years picking up the pieces, at great personal financial cost.
We have represented thousands of employees in W-2 data breach class action lawsuits, including a case against tech giant Seagate. We recently filed actions against solar energy company Sunrun and eHealthInsurance after January 2017 spoofing attacks in which employees handed scam artists a treasure trove of sensitive W-2 information. If your employer has been victimized by a data breach, or you have reason to believe it may have been, contact us for a confidential consultation.