Services / Data Privacy

Our focus on high stakes data privacy litigation rests on the firm belief that consumers’ solitude and personal information deserves to be protected and should never be exploited.

The Rampant Exploitation of Consumer Privacy and Personal Information.

Today many tech giants have business models that depend on exploiting your data and the technology you use to invade, catalog, and capitalize on your private life. In this era of online exploitation, Hedin LLP takes a stand for your most basic rights to privacy, candor, and control. You are not a number – your private life is yours alone.

Protecting Consumer Data Privacy with Creativity and Efficiency.

To protect your privacy rights, we employ our extensive knowledge of the law and the cutting-edge technologies being used to exploit your data to combat against these abusive practices. Our firm cuts through the hype and jargon to uncover the real interests at play and where they align, putting us in the best position to prevail on the complex legal issues of first impression on which these matters often turn. For example, in the past two years we have earned a national reputation for our ability to routinely defeat motions to compel individual arbitration, paving the way for class-wide recoveries that would otherwise have been beyond reach. And in cases where settlement is appropriate, even our opponents have come to respect our perspective and knack for crafting creative resolutions.

Our Data-Privacy Litigation Practices Areas:

We stand with consumers against the epidemic of abusive telemarketing. Our deep understanding of both the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and the technology underlying abusive telemarketing practices sets us apart from other firms practicing in this space. Through our relentless advocacy and refined case theories, we’ve recovered tens of millions of dollars for consumers who’ve had their privacy invaded by text spam, robocalls, and other such abusive practices. And in the context of text-message spam in particular, our firm has achieved some of the largest settlements ever recorded under the TCPA.

Notable examples of our attorneys' work in this area of law include:

ContextLogic Inc., No. 19CH06737 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cnty. Ill., Jan 7, 2020) (class counsel in action alleging transmission of text messages in violation of the TCPA, successfully defeated defendant’s motion to compel arbitration, resulted in $16 million non-reversionary settlement for consumers nationwide)

Farnham v. Caribou Coffee Coffee, Inc., 16cv295-WMC (W.D Wisc. 2017) (class counsel in action alleging transmission of text messages in violation of the TCPA, resulted in $8.5 million non-reversionary settlement for consumers nationwide)

Chimeno-Buzzi v. Hollister Co. et al., 14cv23120-MGC (S.D. Fla. 2014) (class counsel in action alleging transmission of text messages in violation of the TCPA, resulted in $10 million non-reversionary settlement for consumers nationwide)

Hansen v. LMB Mortgage Servs., Inc., No. 19-cv-179-KJM (E.D. Cal.) (nationwide class action alleging transmission of unsolicited text messages in violation of the TCPA, successfully defeated defendant’s motion to compel arbitration)

Wilson v. Redbox Automated Retain, LLC, No. 19-cv-1993 (N.D. Ill.) (nationwide class action alleging transmission of unsolicited text messages in violation of the TCPA, successfully defeated defendant’s motion to compel arbitration)

Far too often, companies use or disclose the personal information you've given them (or that they've taken from you) to track where you are, what you do, what your interests are, and who you associate with – all without your consent. Then they sell that information on the open market – also without your consent – to aggressive advertisers and marketing companies, data brokers and aggregators, law enforcement, and anyone else willing to pay for it.

When companies systematically misuse their customers’ personal data – whether it’s sensitive financial information, personal reading information, or immutable biometric data, to name a few examples – Hedin Hall proudly stands on the side of the consumers.

Our firm has successfully litigated and resolved class actions against publication companies for violating the Michigan Personal Preservation of Privacy Act (“PPPA”) by disclosing their customers’ personal information to data brokers, data miners, aggressive marketing and advertising companies, among many other third parties.

We are actively litigating class actions against companies for harvesting their consumers’ immutable biometric data (including scans of facial geometry and fingerprints), without their consent, in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). Our attorneys have achieved several victories on important issues of first impression under the Illinois BIPA, paving the way for the enforcement of consumers’ rights in this area of law.

Notable examples of our attorneys’ work in these areas of law include:

Kokoszki v. Playboy Enterpises, Inc., No. 19-cv-10302-BAF (E.D. Mich.) (class counsel in action alleging sale of Playboy subscribers’ personal information in violation of the Michigan PPPA, resulted in $3.8 million non-reversionary settlement for class of consumers)

Edwards v. Hearst Communications Inc.., No. 15-cv-9279-AT (S.D.N.Y.) (co-plaintiffs’ counsel in class action alleging the disclosure of Hearst magazine subscribers’ personal information in violation of the Michigan PPPA, resulting in $50 million non-reversionary settlement for class of consumers)

Lin v. Crain Communications Inc., No. 19-cv-11889-VAR (E.D. Mich.) (represent plaintiff and proposed nationwide class in action against Crain for disclosing its subscribers’ personal information in violation of the Michigan PPPA, achieved a key victory on issue of first impression concerning the statute’s enforceability by non-Michigan resident plaintiffs against a Michigan-based defendant)

Horton v. Dow Jones & Company, Inc.., No. 1:18-cv-04027-LGS (S.D.N.Y.) (represented plaintiff and proposed class in action against Dow Jones for selling Wall Street Journal subscribers’ personal information in violation of the Michigan PPPA, successfully defeated defendant’s motion to compel arbitration)

Huguelet v. Maxim Inc., No. 19-cv-4452-ALC (S.D.N.Y.) (represent plaintiff and proposed class in action against Maxim for disclosing Maxim magazine subscribers’ personal information in violation of the Michigan PPPA, recently resulted in proposed class-wide settlement);

Rivera, et al. v. Google, Inc., No. 16-cv-2714 (N.D. Ill.) (Hedin LLP attorney served as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in class action alleging Google’s nonconsensual collection of consumers’ scans of face geometry in violation of the Illinois BIPA, achieved multiple key victories on issues of first impression pertaining to the application of the statute)

Calderon et al v. Clearview AI, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-01296-CM (S.D.N.Y.) (represent plaintiff and proposed class in action alleging Clearview AI’s nonconsensual collection and transmission of consumers’ scans of face geometry in violation of the Illinois BIPA)