Widener University Commonwealth Law School
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Dec 2024)
Plaintiff Alleging Privacy Invasion Against Website Owner Lacked Standing
By Alan S. Wernick, Esq., Wernick & Associates, LTD.
In Jones v. Bloomingdales.com, LLC and Jones v. Papa John’s International, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reviewed two cases, both involving websites using session replay software. Both were filed by the same plaintiff, one against Bloomingdales.com and the other against Papa John’s International. The cases alleged that Plaintiff’s visiting Defendants’ respective websites resulted in the invasion of Plaintiff’s privacy. Both cases were dismissed by the District Courts, and their appeals were consolidated by the Court of Appeals in its December 24, 2024, decision. The Court of Appeals affirmed their dismissal.
The Eighth Circuit stated that “Jones alleges that she visited the companies’ websites and, unbeknownst to her, they employed ‘session replay’ technology that allowed them to discern and record things like her ‘mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes (such as text being entered into an information field or text box), search terms, URLs of web pages visited, as well as . . . what [she] searched for, what [she] looked at, the information [she] inputted, and what [she] clicked on.’ She says that this technology compiles what ‘is essentially a video of [her] entire visit’ that can be replayed any time.”
