• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 20, 2023

Residents of New York and Minnesota are urging a federal appellate court to revive claims that Google violated privacy laws by retaining records of the videos streamed through YouTube.

In papers filed this week with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for the consumers -- Minnesota residents Burke Minahan and Samuel Gershman, and New York residents Moshe Torczyner and David Landfair -- argue that Google ran afoul of state privacy laws by preserving renters' credit card information and video viewing histories. 

“Google retains this information indefinitely, despite the fact that New York and Minnesota law imposes record destruction requirements," counsel writes.

Both Minnesota and New York ban disclosure of viewing data without consent, and 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.

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California threw out the lawsuit, ruling that the New York and Minnesota laws don't allow individuals to sue over allegedly wrongful retention of data.

Minahan and the others now argue that Rogers didn't interpret the state laws correctly. Counsel writes that both statutes obligate companies to destroy personally identifiable information, and that neither law prohibits private lawsuits over violations of that mandate.

Google isn't the only company facing claims stemming from the New York and Minnesota video privacy laws: Apple and Amazon have been hit with similar lawsuits.

U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in the Northern District of California threw out the case against Apple, ruling that video privacy laws in New York and Minnesota only allow consumers to sue over disclosure of their video rental records, not for retaining information.

The consumers recently appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit.