Judge Dismisses LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

A California federal judge last week dismissed a $5 million class action lawsuit seeking to hold LinkedIn responsible for a June 2012 data breach that exposed millions of users’ passwords online, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing.

Plaintiff Katie Szpryka sued LinkedIn after the professional networking site confirmed that approximately 6.5 million users’ passwords were posted on a hacker website. Szpryka alleged in her class action lawsuit that the company failed to protect users’ sensitive information by using “outdated” encryption methods. She alleged this violated LinkedIn’s privacy policy, which promised to “comply with industry standard protocols and technology for data security.”

A total of four class action lawsuits were filed over the LinkedIn hack, which were consolidated in the Northern District of California in August. The first amended complaint was filed in November 2012 adding plaintiff Khalilah Gilmore-Wright. Both plaintiffs were seeking to represent a proposed class of all premium LinkedIn users who paid for a premium account prior to June 7, 2012. They alleged they would not have paid for a premium account if they had known LinkedIn would fail to protect their information as promised in its privacy policy.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila dismissed the consolidated class action lawsuit on March 5 after finding the plaintiffs failed prove they suffered any harm from the LinkedIn data breach, which did not result in actual identity theft despite the passwords being posted online.

Judge Davila also said the plaintiffs failed to show that the proposed class of premium LinkedIn users paid extra to receive an additional level of security as compared to free users.

“The User Agreement and Privacy Policy are the same for the premium membership as they are for the nonpaying basic membership,” he wrote. “Any alleged promise LinkedIn made to paying premium account holders regarding security protocols was also made to non-paying members.”

The plaintiffs will be allowed to file an amended complaint.

The LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit case is In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, Case No. 5:12-cv-03088-EJD, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.LinkedInClassActionSettlement.com for details.

UPDATE 2: A California federal judge gave final approval to the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement on Sept. 15, 2015.