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Devon Schulz

Devon Schulz is an associate in Covington's San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Litigation and Investigations Practice Group. She also advises clients on privacy and cybersecurity issues, including compliance obligations. Devon earned her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where she served as a Managing Editor for the UCLA Journal of Law and Technology.

A court in the Southern District of California recently dismissed for failure to state a claim a case contending that a health care corporation violated users’ privacy under California law.  See Cousin v. Sharp Healthcare, No. 22-CV-2040-MMA (DDL), 2023 WL 4484441 (S.D. Cal. July 12, 2023).

In the proposed class action suit against Sharp Healthcare, a non-profit that operates multiple hospitals and medical groups, plaintiffs alleged violations of privacy under the California Constitution and common law, as well as violations of the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (“CMIA”) and California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”).  Plaintiffs claimed that Sharp collected and shared patients’ personal and sensitive health information by incorporating a third-party pixel on Sharp’s website.

Continue Reading Court finds Plaintiffs Fail to Plead CMIA, CIPA Claims against Health Care Corporation based on Conclusory, Hypothetical, and Vague Assertions

A judge in the Northern District of California granted in part and denied in part Oracle America, Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging that the data broker collects and sells internet users’ personal information for targeting advertising and other purposes in violation of wiretapping acts and privacy-based laws.  See Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Motion to Dismiss, Katz-Lacabe v. Oracle Am., No. 3:22-cv-04792-RS (N.D. Cal. Apr. 6, 2023).  In the suit against Oracle, the three named plaintiffs – residents of California, Florida, and Ireland – purported to represent five separate classes of individuals, including a California class, nationwide class, and global class.

Continue Reading Court finds Plaintiffs Pled “Just Barely Enough” to Withstand Dismissal of California Wiretapping Claim against Data Broker