In re Zynga Privacy Litigation

750 F.3d 1098 (2014)

Study Aids
Case Briefs Overview
Casebooks
Case Briefs
I
From our private database of 46,300+ case briefs, written and edited by humans—never with AI.

In re Zynga Privacy Litigation

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
750 F.3d 1098 (2014)

Facts

Facebook, Inc. (defendant) operated a social-networking website. Facebook’s users could click on links in some Facebook web pages that allowed them to play games provided by Zynga Game Network, Inc. (Zynga) (defendant) without leaving the page they were on. When a user clicked on these links, on the user’s behalf, Facebook sent an electronic request to Zynga for the game. This request included envelope information identifying the message and allowing Zynga to respond, including referrer-header information about which user was sending the request and what page the user was currently viewing. Zynga used this information to provide the requested game. However, Zynga also collected the user’s identity and page location from the referrer header and sold that information to advertisers and other third parties. A class of Facebook users (the users) (plaintiffs) sued Facebook and Zynga. The users claimed that by disclosing the users’ identities and page locations, Facebook and Zynga had disclosed the users’ personal information without the users’ consent in violation of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The district court dismissed the claims, finding that the ECPA applied only to a communication’s contents and that the disclosed information was not part of the communication’s contents. The users appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Ikuta, J.)

What to do next…

  1. Unlock this case brief with a free (no-commitment) trial membership of Quimbee.

    You’ll be in good company: Quimbee is one of the most widely used and trusted sites for law students, serving more than 811,000 law students since 2011. Some law schools—such as Yale, Berkeley, and Northwestern—even subscribe directly to Quimbee for all their law students.

    Unlock this case briefRead our student testimonials

  2. Learn more about Quimbee’s unique (and proven) approach to achieving great grades at law school.

    Quimbee is a company hell-bent on one thing: helping you get an “A” in every course you take in law school, so you can graduate at the top of your class and get a high-paying law job. We’re not just a study aid for law students; we’re the study aid for law students.

    Learn about our approachRead more about Quimbee

Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

  • Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
  • The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
  • Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
  • Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
  • Reliable - written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students
  • The right length and amount of information - includes the facts, issue, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents
  • Access in your class - works on your mobile and tablet
  • 46,300 briefs - keyed to 988 casebooks
  • Uniform format for every case brief
  • Written in plain English - not in legalese and not just repeating the court's language
  • Massive library of related video lessons - and practice questions
  • Top-notch customer support

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership

Casebooks

Entertainment Law
Privacy Law

Key Terms