explained that “Section 631 was aimed at one aspect of the
privacy problem—eavesdropping, or the secret monitoring of
conversations by third parties.”136
The District Court dismissed the § 631(a) claim for the
same reasons that it dismissed the plaintiffs’ federal
wiretapping claim. As discussed above, the pleadings
demonstrate that Google was itself a party to all the electronic
transmissions that are the bases of the plaintiffs’ wiretapping
claims.137 Because § 631 is aimed only at “eavesdropping, or
the secret monitoring of conversations by third parties,”138 we
will affirm the dismissal of the California Invasion of Privacy
Act claim for the same reasons we affirm the dismissal of the
federal Wiretap Act claim.
136
Ribas v. Clark, 696 P.2d 637, 640 (Cal. 1985); see also
Powell v. Union Pac. R. Co., 864 F. Supp. 2d 949, 955 (E.D.
Cal. 2012) (“Section 631 broadly proscribes third party
access to ongoing communications.”); Thomasson v. GC
Servs. Ltd. P’ship, 321 Fed. App’x 557, 559 (9th Cir. 2008)
(“California courts interpret ‘eavesdrop,’ as used in § 632, to
refer to a third party secretly listening to a conversation
between two other parties.”).
137
Judge Fisher believes that under Ribas, 696 P.2d 637,
Google may be liable under Section 631(a) for recording the
communications and sharing them with third parties. Judge
Fisher does not write separately as it does not appear that
California law is developed sufficiently on this question to
reverse the judgment of the District Court.
138
Ribas, 696 P.2d at 640.
57
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