Friday, March 12, 2021
In
Callahan v. Ancestry, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37811 (Mar. 1, 2021), Plaintiffs filed a complaint in a Northern California district court alleging that Ancestry.com’s (“Ancestry’s”) use of Plaintiffs’ old yearbook photos and information in Ancestry’s Yearbook Database violated their privacy. Plaintiffs sued Ancestry individually and on behalf of a putative California class claiming violations of their right to privacy, unlawful and unfair business practices, intrusion upon seclusion, and unjust enrichment from Ancestry selling Plaintiffs’ personal information. Ancestry moved to dismiss the claims in the complaint on multiple grounds, but the Court only granted the motion to dismiss on two grounds (1) Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge its use of public data and (2) Ancestry is immune from liability under the Communications Decency Act. 47 U.S.C. § 230.