Here is an article which provides details:
A judge has refused to bring back a class action lawsuit against four car manufacturers because the privacy violation did not meet the WPA standard.
www.malwarebytes.com
Here's Washington State law in question:
>>>RCW 9.73.060. Violating right of privacy — Civil action — Liability for damages.
Any person who, directly or by means of a detective agency or any other agent, violates the provisions of this chapter shall be subject to legal action for damages, to be brought by any other person
claiming that a violation of this statute has injured his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation. A person so injured shall be entitled to actual damages, including mental pain and suffering endured by him or her on account of violation of the provisions of this chapter, or liquidated damages computed at the rate of one hundred dollars a day for each day of violation, not to exceed one thousand dollars, and a reasonable attorney’s fee and other costs of litigation.<<<(emphasis added)
Here's a snip from the court decision, written by 3 judges Hawkins, Graber, and McKeown (not "A federal judge" as stated in the malwarebytes article) :
>>>Ford manufactures and
sells automobiles with integrated infotainment systems that allow drivers and passengers to use their cellphones hands-free while operating Ford vehicles. According to the complaint, as part of this design, the infotainment system automatically downloads, copies, and indefinitely stores the call logs and text messages of any cellphone connected to it. If text messages or call logs are deleted from a cellphone, the vehicle nevertheless retains the communications on the vehicle's on-board memory, even after the cellphone is disconnected. Vehicle owners cannot access or delete their personal information once it has been stored.
Plaintiff Jones owns a Ford vehicle equipped with such a system. He exchanged private text messages with Plaintiff McKee before subsequently connecting his cellphone to the vehicle's on-board infotainment system. Both Plaintiffs allege that their private communications were unlawfully recorded from Plaintiff Jones's cellphone and permanently stored on his Ford vehicle in violation of the WPA.
Plaintiffs do not allege, however, that Ford actually accessed the personal communications on the vehicle. Instead, Plaintiffs allege that the information
may be accessed by a third-party company, for example, the Berla Corporation ("Berla"). According to the Plaintiffs, Berla produces hardware and software capable of extracting stored text messages and call logs stored on a vehicle's on-board memory. Berla products are not generally available to the public, and sales access is restricted to law enforcement, the military, civil and regulatory agencies, and select private investigation service providers.<<<(emphasis added)
The plaintiffs lost because they didn't even assert injury to "his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation" as required by the law.
People may not like the outcome, but it's consistent with the law in question. If people don't like the law
, they need to talk to their elected officials and lobby to change the law. This is how democracy works.
