Last week, a plaintiff's putative class action alleging a violation of California's Shine the Light law, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83, was dismissed without prejudice. See Boorstein v. Men's Journal LLC, No. 12-cv-00771-DSF-E, 2012 WL 2152815 (C.D. Cal. June 14, 2012). The suit, one of several other similar pending suits, is the first reported decision applying the Shine the Light Law.
What happened in the privacy world last week? On Thursday, just before the release of the White House Paper, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced an agreement with the leading operators of mobile application platforms to privacy principles designed to bring the mobile app industry in line with a California law requiring mobile apps that collect personal information to have a privacy policy. It might be argued that the White House is now enunciating principles and best practices, and encouraging legislation of principles, that have long been embodied not only as best practice but as actual legislation under California law.