David N. Cinotti Quoted in Law360, “Privacy & Cybersecurity Litigation To Watch In 2026”
David N. Cinotti, partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was quoted in a recent Law360 article highlighting the top privacy and cybersecurity litigation cases to watch in 2026. One of the cases highlighted was a putative class-action lawsuit, Detrina Solomon v. Flipps Media, Inc., in which Cinotti and Brendan M. Walsh, co-chair of the firm’s Litigation practice, delivered a decisive victory for client Flipps Media (d/b/a/Triller TV), a leading provider of live and recorded sports and entertainment streaming. The case, a matter of first impression, involved the use of internet advertising technology known as Meta (formerly Facebook) Pixel and the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
In May 2025, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the lawsuit against Flipps in a precedential decision, resolving for the first time in the circuit the standard for what information constitutes “personally identifiable information” (PII) under the VPPA. The Second Circuit agreed with Pashman Stein that PII under the VPPA includes only information that an ordinary person could use to identify a customer of a video tape service provider. On December 8, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, ending the case and preserving Flipps’s Second Circuit victory.
Cinotti told Law360 that the dispute involving his client was "an important case for providing some clarity" under the VPPA.
"This marks the third time a circuit has adopted the 'ordinary person' standard, and that's helpful for businesses that have been caught by surprise by these class actions and are using emerging and developing technology like pixels because in most cases, using that technology is probably not going to violate the VPPA under this standard," Cinotti said, noting that this standard comports with the common corporate stance that the law was "meant for the pre-internet world" and that the personal information it covers "has to be something close to the Bork example."
Cinotti added that he expects VPPA claims against companies to drop even further in the coming months, given that the law only has a two-year statute of limitations and, after the first wave of these suits hit, companies began to become more aware of these issues and set up standalone consent mechanisms and other controls on their websites to attempt to skirt liability the law.
"We may see more litigation in the coming year in circuits that don't have the ordinary person yet, but 2025 ended up being a good year for businesses overall in terms of the courts limiting the impact of the VPPA and businesses being able to better protect themselves now that they know about these issues," Cinotti said.
To read the full Law360 article, click here.