Nelson v. Reddit, Inc.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- Docket
- No. 3:25-cv-01470
- Parties
- Plaintiff Nelson (putative class of California website visitors) v. Reddit, Inc.
- Claim type
- privacy
- Filed
- 2025-06-09
- Outcome
- Reddit's motion to dismiss denied on Feb. 17-18, 2026; the court held the LiveRamp tracker plausibly qualifies as a pen register under CIPA Section 638.51, allowing the class action to proceed into discovery.
Summary
A putative class action alleges that Reddit violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act by embedding a third-party LiveRamp tracker on its website that collected device and routing information without consent or a court order, in the manner of a pen register under Cal. Penal Code Section 638.51. Reddit moved to dismiss, arguing the tracker does not capture outgoing dialing or addressing information and that CIPA's pen register provision was not meant to reach such tools. On February 17-18, 2026, Judge Janis L. Sammartino denied the motion, agreeing with most federal districts that website-based trackers can plausibly constitute a pen register and rejecting Reddit's attempt to import Section 631 wiretap requirements. The ruling lets the case proceed and is part of a broader wave of CIPA pen register litigation over web tracking.