Golden State Warriors Can’t Escape App-Spying Class Action

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A federal judge has denied efforts by the Golden State Warriors and a mobile app software developer to dodge accusations that they illegally recorded fans’ conversations.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White denied motions for dismissal filed by defendants Golden State Warriors basketball team and Signal360. The defendants sought to shut down class action claims that the NBA team’s mobile app surreptitiously records users’ conversations without their knowledge or consent and in violation of federal communications laws.

Over the defendants’ arguments, Judge White found that plaintiff LaTisha Satchell adequately stated claims against Signal360 and the Golden State Warriors for violations of the federal Wiretap Act. The judge said the defendants’ conduct, as claimed by Satchell, is adequate to allege that both of them engaged in unlawful interception of electronic communications.

Judge White specifically noted that Satchell had cured defects in her previous complaint that prevented her from stating a claim against Signal360 for interception of an oral communication. Those defects resulted in a dismissal of those claims without prejudice earlier this year.

Judge White dismissed with prejudice all of Satchell’s claims against a third defendant – Yinzcam Inc., the developer of the Golden State Warriors app. The judge found Satchell’s allegations failed to show that Yinzcam intercepted any of her oral communications.

Neither could Satchell show that Yizcam was liable for procuring such an intereception, according to the judge’s order. Satchell could show no more than that Yinzcam only provided an avenue through which Signal360 and the Warriors could effectuate such an interception, the judge said.

The mobile app at issue can be used to keep up with news, scores and other information about the Golden State Warriors. It uses Signal360’s beacon technology to determine the user’s location by listening for audio beacons through the smartphone’s microphone.

Satchell filed this Golden State Warriors class action lawsuit in 2014, claiming the app listens for more than just audio beacons. She alleges the Golden State Warriors app continues to pick up and record audio as long as the app is running, intercepting user’s conversations whether they know it or not.

Satchell says she started using the app after she downloaded it in April 2016 and used it through July 2016. During that time, she says she carried her smartphone “to places where she would not invite other people, and to places where she would have private conversations.”

While the app does prompt the user to authorize use of the smartphone’s microphone, Satchell says she was never given a choice about opting into the use of beacon technology.

She claims Signal360 and the Golden State Warriors violated provisions of the Wiretap Act that prohibit the interception of oral and electronic communications and the procurement of such an interception.

Satchell is represented by attorneys Rafey S. Balabanian and Benjamin S. Thomassen of Edelson PC.

The Golden State Warriors Mobile App-Spying Class Action Lawsuit is LaTisha Satchell v. Sonic Notify Inc. d/b/a Signal360, et al., Case No. 4:16-cv-04961, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.