Judge narrows LinkedIn privacy lawsuit, leaves health data claim alive

In a detailed 15-page ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Davila largely dismissed a privacy lawsuit targeting LinkedIn’s Insight Tag, a tracking pixel that links activity on advertisers’ websites to LinkedIn profiles. While confirming that LinkedIn openly explains its use of cookies and the tag’s operation, he refused to throw out the plaintiff’s intrusion-on-seclusion claim because the technology appeared to capture personal health information.

One plaintiff, Kimberly Johnson, alleged that the tag recorded medication and dosage data she submitted to Nevada Health Link, which she says was monetized through targeted advertising. Davila characterized the evidence of LinkedIn’s intent to collect such data as “relatively weak,” yet deemed the allegations sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. He also expressed skepticism that health-care platforms employing the tag, including Nevada Health Link and Covered California, adequately disclosed its data-sharing practices.

This decision follows an October ruling where Davila also declined to dismiss a similar medical-privacy case. Both actions are pending in federal court in Northern California, and neither the plaintiffs’ nor LinkedIn’s attorneys have responded to comment requests.