• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 16, 2023

Two Apple users have asked a federal appellate court to reinstate claims that the company violates New York and Minnesota privacy laws by retaining records of the videos users stream through iTunes.

In papers filed this week with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for New York resident Lucila Baptiste and Minnesota resident Frederick Ramos say Apple runs afoul of video privacy laws.

Those statutes prohibit disclosure of viewing data without consent, and explicitly require companies to promptly destroy identifiable information as soon as practical, with an outer limit of one year from the time the data is no longer needed.

“Because its customers’ rental transactions are necessarily completed within 30 days from the date of the rental ... Apple systematically violates New York and Minnesota law by storing and maintaining its customers’ [personally identifiable information] for longer than the time permitted by those statutes,” counsel writes.

The papers come in a dispute dating to last year, when Baptiste and Ramos alleged in a class-action complaint that Apple wrongly “maintains a digital dossier on millions of consumers throughout New York and Minnesota.”

“Apple maintains and stores its customers’ names, credit card numbers, billing and contact information, and most importantly, sensitive video-rental histories for an indefinite period of time,” the users alleged.

Apple urged U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in the Northern District of California to throw out the case at an early stage, arguing that the laws in New York and Minnesota only allow consumers to sue over disclosure of their video rental records, not for retaining information.

Gilliam agreed with Apple and dismissed the case. Counsel for the users now argues to the 9th Circuit that Gilliam misread the New York and Minnesota laws.

“Neither statute contains any language prohibiting an aggrieved person from suing a corporation concerning a violation related to retaining [personally identifiable information],” the lawyers write.

Apple isn't the only company facing litigation over alleged failure to destroy streaming video records, Google and Amazon were also sued over similar claims.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, w threw out the lawsuit against Google. The users recently filed the paperwork to appeal that decision to the 9th Circuit.

The claims against Amazon are still pending in federal district court in Seattle.