Consumer Privacy Litigation and Enforcement Actions in the United States

Businesses use sophisticated information technology to process, store, and analyze information about consumers. Collecting and maintaining such consumer information allows businesses to target their client and marketing bases and conduct transactions more efficiently. This article summarizes recent major court decisions, consent decrees and other resolutions of regulatory enforcement actions and private litigation related to consumer privacy in the past year. On Jun 16, 2005, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc (BJ's Wholesale) entered into a settlement regarding BJ's Wholesale's data security practices. In Nov of 2004, Petco Animal Supplies agreed to settle a FTC action brought against the company for misrepresenting the breadth of the company's Internet security measures to consumers. On Feb 28, 2005, a New York trial court denied a defendant's motion to dismiss a claim that a Social Security number was protected from disclosure by a state consumer protection statute.