Settlement Reached in Smartphone Privacy Class Action Lawsuit

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A privacy class action settlement has been reached between some of the largest smartphone manufacturers and a group of plaintiffs who allege their mobile devices were installed with wiretapping software.

On Friday, plaintiffs in the smartphone class action lawsuit In re: Carrier IQ Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation asked a California judge to extend the deadline for filing a settlement agreement because they were unable to get all the signatures needed by that day.

According to court document filed Jan. 15, the parties anticipate that by Jan. 22, 2016 all signatures will be collected which should still give the court enough time to review the proposed privacy class action settlement before the Feb. 16 preliminary approval hearing.

The smartphone privacy class action lawsuit claims that the now defunct mobile software company Carrier iQ designed a program that could collect customer data from cell phones. This software was later installed on cell phones manufactured by Motorola, Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics and other companies, the plaintiffs allege.

According to the original smartphone class action lawsuit filed in 2014, this action violates the Wiretap Act because the device manufacturers were able to intercept the contents of electronic communications through cell phones. The plaintiffs claim that cell phone companies were able to collect text messages, user names, passwords and internet searches through the software created by Carrier iQ.

In January 2015, U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen partially dismissed some of the claims in the smartphone privacy class action lawsuit. In particular, the alleged violations of the Wiretap Act. Judge Chen also dismissed several different claims of violations of state law. However, he allowed the plaintiffs to amend the smartphone class action lawsuit and resubmit it.

By June 2015, the parties announced they had reached a global settlement in principal but struggled to finalize the exact terms. Although details regarding the settlement deadlock were not given, court documents showed that all parties participated in months of negotiations and mediation sessions.

“In finalizing the terms of the settlement agreement an impasse has been reached between the parties and the settlement agreement has not been finalized and signed,” stated the June 2015 letter submitted by all parties after four mediation sessions regarding the global settlement.

The court documents filed Friday stated that all parties reached a settlement agreement which is anticipated to resolve all claims of alleged illegal collection of customer data. The terms of the smartphone class action settlement is expected to affect millions of cell phone users.

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The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph H. Malley, Law Office of Joseph H. Malley, PC, Steve W. Berman and Robert F. Lopez of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Bruce L. Simon, Daniel L. Warshaw and William J. Newsom ofPearson Simon & Warshaw LLP, and others.

The Smartphone Privacy Class Action Lawsuit Settlement is In re: Carrier IQ Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation, Case No. C-12-md-2330-EMC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

UPDATE: On Jan. 22, 2016, the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary settlement approval and class certification in the case In re: Carrier IQ Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation. Nearly 79 million tablet and smartphone owners will be covered by the proposed deal, which will provide $9 million in monetary relief to affected consumers and certain injunctive relief, if approved.

UPDATE 2: On Mar. 1, 2016, a California federal judge granted preliminary approval of the $9 million smartphone privacy class action lawsuit settlement.

UPDATE 3: On Apr. 6, 2016, the Smartphone Privacy Class Action Settlement is now open! Click here to file a Claim Form or visit www.CarrieriQSettlement.com for more details.

UPDATE 4: On June 23, 2016, consumers in this privacy class action lawsuit against several tablet and smartphone makers urged a California federal court to accept a settlement that would resolve allegations that the companies installed wiretapping software on mobile devices.

UPDATE 5: On Oct. 1, 2018, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks from the Smartphone privacy class action settlementworth as much as $417. Congratulations to everyone who file a claim and got PAID!