• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 20, 2025

Three non-TikTok users are seeking to revive claims that the company violated their privacy by allegedly tracking them via a pixel on websites operated by Hulu, Etsy and other businesses.

TikTok and parent company ByteDance "surreptitiously harvested troves of data from non-users," attorneys for Bernadine Griffith, Patricia Shih, and Jacob Watters write in an appellate brief filed Wednesday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Counsel adds that even though Griffith and the others never used TikTok or agreed to its terms of service, they were tracked on outside sites anyway, via hidden software that collected data including "personal identifiers, browsing activity, and search histories."

They are asking the appellate court to reverse rulings issued by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. in the Central District of California.

Last September, he said the plaintiffs couldn't proceed with a class-action complaint, but could instead only sue as individuals.

Three months later, he dismissed the case before trial, ruling that Griffith and the others hadn't offered enough evidence to establish that TikTok's software collected “sensitive” information about them.

Counsel for Griffith and the others are now asking the 9th Circuit to reverse both of those decisions, arguing that Blumenthal "misapplied legal standards, and disregarded critical evidence."

"This case should have gone to a jury as a certified class action," counsel argues. "Common questions predominate, and the evidence could support a jury’s finding that defendants violated reasonable privacy expectations and the wiretap statutes."

The dispute dates to May 2023, when Griffith alleged in a class-action complaint that TikTok's pixel -- a tool publishers install on their sites to collect ad-related data -- enables the company to compile information about web users, regardless of whether they have accounts with TikTok.

Griffith, later joined by other web users, claimed that TikTok violated privacy laws by intercepting and collecting browsing and search data from various online services and sites -- including the streaming service Hulu, online marketplace Etsy, and retailer Build-a-Bear Workshop. The plaintiffs also alleged TikTok's technology allows it to collect information about users even when they attempt to block cookies set by third parties

TikTok successfully opposed Griffith's request to proceed on behalf of a class. The company also successfully urged Blumenfeld to dismiss the matter without holding a trial, arguing there was no evidence that any “sensitive or identifying information” was shared with either TikTok or outside advertisers.

Blumenfeld agreed with TikTok on both issues and threw out the matter last December.

“Plaintiffs have not produced evidence of any sensitive information defendants collected from them,” he wrote.

Griffith and the others argue that the case should have been certified as a class-action, and that they should have been allowed to present evidence to a jury that TikTok violated their privacy.

Their appellate brief draws on a report by a statistician who analyzed some of the data TikTok allegedly collected.

Counsel writes that the expert "conducted statistical extrapolations confirming that defendants collect a shocking volume of personal and sensitive data from putative class members," but specific details about this data are blacked out in the copy of the brief that was made publicly available.

TikTok is expected to file a response by July 18.