California businesses want to stop a rash of lawsuits being filed under an old state wiretapping law that targets their online data collection practices.
They are lobbying state lawmakers to pass legislation meant to halt so-called nuisance suits by plaintiffs who say that ad tracking and cookies constitute illegal wiretapping under the 1967 California Invasion of Privacy Act. Such collection practices, businesses argue, should be solely under the jurisdiction of the California Consumer Privacy Act, the state’s comprehensive privacy law.
Privacy activists oppose the legislation, which they say would remove one of the strongest tools to fight online surveillance.
The ...