California's 1967 Wiretap Law is Being Weaponized Against Main Street

Manatt Privacy and Data Security Partner authored an article for Daily Journal on the misuse of California's decades-old wiretapping statute against businesses operating ordinary website technologies.

Reilly wrote that the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), a 1967 criminal wiretapping law, is being stretched far beyond its original intent to target businesses, nonprofits and public agencies for using routine website tools like cookies and pixels—already regulated under California's modern privacy laws. Over 3,000 businesses have been sued in the past two years alone, he noted, with plaintiff-side attorneys driving a mass-litigation business model that enriches lawyers while delivering little to no benefit to consumers. Senate Bill 690, Reilly contended, would restore CIPA to its original purpose and end the exploitative litigation wave.

“Stretching a mid-twentieth-century wiretapping law to govern today's internet has produced only confusion, not stronger privacy protections,” wrote Reilly.

Daily Journal subscribers can read the full article .