Wiretap Act / Stored Communications Act

The Wiretap Act prohibits intentionally intercepting the contents of an electronic communication; the Stored Communications Act prohibits unauthorized access to communications in electronic storage. Both carry private rights of action: the Wiretap Act provides statutory damages of the greater of $10,000 or $100 per day; the SCA provides actual damages and profits with a $1,000 minimum. Federal law requires only one party's consent, so a website operator can normally consent to its own vendors' interception; the exception plaintiffs rely on removes that defense when the interception is for a criminal or tortious purpose, and courts in the Meta Pixel healthcare litigation have let that theory proceed. Two-party-consent states such as California, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts supply parallel state claims, though Massachusetts's highest court held in 2024 that web browsing data is not a protected communication under its statute. The evidentiary question is what the tag transmitted, to whom, and when.