{"id":3849,"date":"2026-02-19T18:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/the-privacy-map-expands-michigan-emerges-in-website-tracking-litigation-miller-canfield\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T18:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:57:11","slug":"the-privacy-map-expands-michigan-emerges-in-website-tracking-litigation-miller-canfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/the-privacy-map-expands-michigan-emerges-in-website-tracking-litigation-miller-canfield\/","title":{"rendered":"The Privacy Map Expands: Michigan Emerges in Website Tracking Litigation | Miller Canfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"html-view-content\">\n<p>A putative class action against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) has been filed in the Eastern District of Michigan alleging that commonplace website tracking and session replay tools violate both federal and Michigan wiretap and eavesdropping laws. The case, <em>Falls v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Insurance Company<\/em>, joins nearly 4,000 others that have been filed across the U.S. since 2022 alleging some form of wiretapping based on website interactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In <em>Falls<\/em>, plaintiffs allege that BCBSM deployed third\u2011party tracking pixels on its public\u2011facing websites that collected and transmitted visitors\u2019 personally identifiable information to outside technology vendors without adequate notice or consent. According to the complaint, the challenged tracking technologies allegedly captured information tied to users\u2019 interactions with BCBSM\u2019s website and shared that data with third parties for analytics and advertising purposes.<\/p>\n<p>The case underscores that even heavily regulated entities in the healthcare sector are facing litigation involving allegations directed at standard website analytics tools, independent of any alleged data breach or cybersecurity incident. The claims are purportedly brought under the Federal Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C \u00a7 2510 et seq.) and the Michigan Eavesdropping Statute (MCL 750.539a et seq.).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Two Cases \u2013 A Trend?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This lawsuit joins <em>Goodman v. Hillsdale College<\/em>, a recently settled class action lawsuit brought in the Western District of Michigan. In the case, the Court denied Hillsdale College\u2019s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) based on the college\u2019s use of website tracking technology on its online lecture platform. The <em>Hillsdale<\/em> decision rejected the notion that nonprofits or mission\u2011driven organizations are exempt from privacy statutes like the VPPA. The court made clear that free content, educational purpose, and nonprofit structure do not preclude liability where statutory elements are plausibly alleged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why This Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Digital wiretapping litigation has surged sharply in recent years, driven largely by lawsuits challenging the use of website tracking technologies such as cookies, pixels, session\u2011replay tools, and chat features. Nearly 4000 digital wiretapping lawsuits have been filed across the U.S. since mid\u20112022. While California remains the epicenter, the data show a rapid geographic expansion, with filings increasing in states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, reflecting a growing plaintiffs\u2019 bar targeting consumer\u2011facing businesses nationwide for alleged violations of state and federal wiretap statutes based on routine digital analytics and marketing practices. These cases are often pled as putative class actions and seek statutory damages, attorneys\u2019 fees, and injunctive relief.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways for Organizations<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plaintiffs\u2019 firms are actively scanning websites for tracking technologies that can form the basis of statutory claims.<\/li>\n<li>Consent defenses are winning but cookie banners, consent tools, and privacy disclosures must align with actual data flows, not just stated policies.<span>[i]<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Nonprofits, educational institutions, and mission\u2011driven organizations face the same scrutiny as commercial entities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>[i]<\/span> <em>Lakes v. Ubisoft, Inc<\/em>., 777 F. Supp. 3d 1047 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 2, 2025)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A putative class action against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) has been filed in the Eastern District of Michigan alleging that commonplace website tracking and session replay tools violate both federal and Michigan wiretap and eavesdropping laws. The case, Falls v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Insurance Company, joins nearly 4,000 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2540,2538,1369,1123,601,1489,2465,1650,1146,2539],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-canfield","tag-emerges","tag-expands","tag-litigation","tag-map","tag-michigan","tag-miller","tag-privacy","tag-tracking","tag-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}