In Re DoubleClick Inc. Privacy Litigation
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
154 F. Supp. 2d 497 (2001)
DoubleClick (defendant), the largest internet advertising provider, placed cookies on users' (plaintiffs) hard drives when they visited DoubleClick-affiliated websites, allegedly collecting personal information like names, addresses, phone numbers, and browsing activity beyond the cookies' typical username/password-storage purpose; the plaintiffs sued alleging, among other claims, a violation of ECPA Title II's prohibition on unauthorized access to stored electronic communications, with the parties agreeing DoubleClick accessed the users' hard drives (communications facilities) without dispute but disagreeing over whether an ECPA exception for party-authorized access applied, since that exception's application turned on whether the affiliated websites themselves qualified as "users" of the communications who could authorize DoubleClick's access.
Whether an Internet company violates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act's prohibition on unauthorized access to stored electronic communications by storing and accessing cookies placed on an Internet user's hard drive.