In response to multiple class-action lawsuits, a Washington appeals court determined that Honda, along with other automakers such as Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors, did not violate privacy laws by storing communication data from connected smartphones. Although the messages are stored in a manner inaccessible to vehicle owners, the court ruled that this storage method does not constitute a breach of privacy.
The dismissal of the cases occurred earlier this year, and the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided not to reopen the litigation in response to five separate class-action suits against the automakers. The court consolidated the cases, citing nearly identical factual backgrounds and legal issues. The dismissal, however, was not based on the assertion that the automakers were innocent but rather because the claims did not meet the statutory injury requirements of the Washington Privacy Act (WPA).
According to the court's ruling, a plaintiff must allege an injury to business, person, or reputation to succeed at the pleading stage of a WPA claim. The judges emphasized that a mere violation of the WPA does not satisfy the statutory injury requirement.
In essence, the court's decision implies that it is acceptable for vehicles to intercept, record, download, store, and transmit text messages and call logs without authorization, as long as the privacy violation is deemed potential rather than actual harm.
This ruling was influenced by the dismissal of a similar class-action lawsuit against Ford in Washington in late October, which shared identical grounds. One of the 9th Circuit judges, Michael Daly Hawkins, participated in both decisions.
In the case against Honda, the plaintiffs argued that Honda's infotainment systems, installed in vehicles manufactured from 2014 onward, store intercepted text messages and call logs in non-temporary computer memory, inaccessible to vehicle owners. The class-action complaint highlighted the potential privacy concerns, pointing to Berla Corporation, a Maryland-based manufacturer of equipment capable of extracting stored text messages from infotainment systems. The complaint alleged that Berla's software, designed for law enforcement use, can retrieve data from Honda vehicles without any security measures.
Despite the dismissal of the cases with prejudice, leaving the Supreme Court as the only avenue for further appeal, it remains unclear whether additional appeals are planned at this time.
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