BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A Bakersfield small business owner is under fire, facing a lawsuit for allegedly breaking a decades-old privacy law. But some business owners insist this isn’t about protecting privacy, it’s about big payouts.
Brandon Phipps is the Owner of Second Star Technologies, and he says, “I don’t understand how any person in their right mind could confuse a telephone line and a website cookie.”
A wave of lawsuits is sweeping California, targeting small businesses accused of breaking a decades-old privacy law. The California Invasion of Privacy Act, written in the 1960s to stop wiretapping, is now being used against modern websites. Live chats, user trackers, and tools you see every day are now under scrutiny.
The allegation: businesses are collecting online behavior without users’ knowledge or consent.
“There's no real crime; these people weren't actually harmed in any way. They basically voluntarily go to these websites, and these monitored computers to establish that this happened, then they get the judges to sign off on it, and away it goes.” Phipps said.
Brandon Phipps runs a Bakersfield IT company with his wife. After being targeted by one of these lawsuits, he says his family business paid more than 20-thousand dollars in legal fees and settlement costs. “They are going after businesses in a way that they profile these businesses clearly, they don't have the money to take this across the finish line and so they basically try and bankrupt in sight of the discovery processes and you end up settling for God knows how much money and they really try and get into your personal finances they did it to us and i imagine other people.”
But he’s not alone. Thousands of businesses, nonprofits, and even schools across California have faced similar claims.
Under the law, penalties can reach thousands of dollars per violation, leading many small businesses to settle rather than fight.
Andrew Kingman, who is a part of the General Counsel for Alliance for Legal Fairness, and he says, “It was intended to govern eavesdropping and wiretapping via telephonic communication, and unfortunately, we've seen a small group of trial lawyers abuse this statute. When we started this effort, we counted about 600 lawsuits that had been field this was early 2025. Since then, the number is over 3,400 lawsuits. We've seen an explanation of litigation. There's a saying in the legal community right now that is, if you haven't been sued yet your about to be.”
Now, state lawmakers are looking at changes through a bill known as SB 690, which aims to clarify how the law applies to websites while still protecting user privacy.
For business owners like Phipps, the focus now is prevention. “Make sure you have a clear cookie notice, give users the option to opt out, and have a strong privacy policy in place.” He said.
I reached out to attorneys filing these types of lawsuits for comment, but have not heard back.
Lawmakers are expected to continue discussing SB 690 in the coming months.
Meanwhile, business owners are urging others to double-check their websites and make sure they’re in compliance with current privacy laws.
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