Recently, a California federal judge dismissed a suit alleging that Sojern, Inc., a travel marketing platform, violated the Federal Wiretap Act and California law by allegedly installing “tracking technology” on two hotel websites. Crano v. Sojern, Inc., 2025 WL 2689267 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2025).
The plaintiff, Suellen Crano, asserted on behalf of a putative class that Sojern installed technology on hotel websites that collected data about users’ interactions with the websites in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA” or “Federal Wiretap Act”), the California Constitution, and the California Unfair Competition Law. The allegedly collected information included the relevant hotel ID, hotel name/location, hotel room price, number of rooms, check-in date, and check-out date associated with plaintiff’s reservations.
In dismissing plaintiff’s CIPA claim, the Court concluded that plaintiff “ha[d] not plausibly alleged Sojern intercepted the communication while it was in transit.” The Court explained that plaintiff alleged merely that the technology could be used to “re-direct” data about users from the hotel companies to third parties “contemporaneously in real time,” which failed to support the inference that “her communications were read while in transit.”
The Court also dismissed plaintiff’s Federal Wiretap Act claim, concluding that the hotels— parties to the alleged communications—had consented. Under the Federal Wiretap Act, the consent of one party to the communication is a complete defense. The Court rejected plaintiff’s argument that the “crime-tort” exception to one-party consent applied based on an alleged violation of California’s Guest Records statute. The Court explained that the Guest Records statute applies to certain personally identifiable information obtained by innkeepers, hotelkeepers, and the like, and plaintiff failed to show that the information allegedly collected by Sojern fell within the statute or that Sojern qualified as an innkeeper or hotelkeeper.