A fresh story about the privacy of electronic data appears in the news each week.  People are justifiably concerned that online and mobile device companies not surreptitiously collect or use, without their knowledge and consent, personal information they voluntarily disclose to social media sites. See “Customers Stay Despite High-Profile Data Breaches,” https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13503565

Not surprisingly, these concerns and stories are spawning lawsuits.  The challenge faced by attorneys filing or defending electronic privacy cases is to determine what legal principles will apply, and indeed whether the behavior complained of is actionable under existing law.  Congress and state legislatures have only begun to consider legislation governing management of electronic personal data in the modern world of social media and mobile devices.  read more