Massachusetts Supreme Court Takes a Closer Look at Wiretap Laws, Potentially Narrowing Privacy Actions
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently issued an important ruling in Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital et al., addressing whether tracking a user’s activities on a website and sharing that data with third parties constitutes intercepting communications in violation of the state’s 1968 Wiretap Act (the “Act”). In dismissing the plaintiff’s statutory claims, the court emphasized that it is the responsibility of the legislature – and not the court – to address gaps in statutory protections related to privacy and modern tracking technologies, highlighting that as technology and any corresponding digital privacy concerns evolve, legislative frameworks must be modified to adapt accordingly. Plaintiff Kathleen Vita claimed that New England Baptist Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center violated the Act by “intercepting” communications without her consent or knowledge through the use of tracking tools on their websites. Specifically, the plaintiff alleged that the hospitals used third-party software to record her activity when she browsed the hospitals’ websites to obtain information about doctors, search for information about medical symptoms and other healthcare-related issues, and obtain and review medical records. The plaintiff alleged that the hospitals then shared this data with third parties that processed the data for targeted advertising campaigns tailored to the individual user’s data. The court concluded that although the web tracking practices raised...