Washington, D.C., April 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New Civil Liberties Alliance has secured a victorious settlement in the Wright, et al. v. Goldstein class-action lawsuit against a Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) scheme in which it auto-installed its “MassNotify” Covid-19 tracking app on more than a million smartphones without the owners’ knowledge or consent between March 18, 2021 and May 11, 2023 under former DPH Commissioner Margret Cooke. MassNotify tracked and recorded the movements and personal contacts of Android mobile device users who did not give permission or were not even aware this was happening.
DPH deployed this insidious spyware not only on the phones of Massachusetts residents and workers, but even on people’s Android phones who were just passing through the Commonwealth. DPH now agrees to destroy all its data collected through the app and binds itself not to install any similar technology on Android devices without their owners’ permission during the next five years. NCLA and its clients Robert Wright, Johnny Kula, Kyle Donnell, Jennifer Hohl, Janice Santello and Andrew Blake are proud to reach this successful resolution vindicating a long-running battle for their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
DPH coordinated with Google to automatically install MassNotify on smartphones in a misguided and futile effort to combat Covid-19 with contact tracing. Thousands of people did not know DPH’s tracking app was on their phone, since it did not appear on their home screens like other apps. NCLA’s clients were appalled to learn the government put an app on their phones without their knowledge, especially one that could constantly track their movements. They were even more disturbed when, after they deleted the app, DPH automatically reinstalled it.
NCLA has argued that MassNotify’s automatic installation infringed on the Fourth Amendment protection against seizure of information because it interfered with phone owners’ property interests and collected private information about them. By taking up storage space on phones against their owners’ will, such unwanted installations also amounted to uncompensated taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The scheme also defied Articles X and XIV of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. No law passed by Congress or the Massachusetts legislature authorized DPH to engage in this unconstitutional scheme—nor could it, since this data seizure violates both the Commonwealth and U.S. Constitutions. In addition, both state and federal laws further prohibit such computer invasions. The settlement permanently resolves these claims, bringing NCLA clients’ long ordeal to an end. The precedent it establishes should far outlast the five-year duration of the agreement.
NCLA released the following statements:
“This settlement is not only a victory for civil liberties in Massachusetts but across the country. It is a powerful cautionary precedent that government should not adopt new intrusive technology to spy on its citizens using their own smartphones without regard for law. Our Founders were wiser than we know when they promised the enduring civil liberties that this settlement vindicates.”
— Peggy Little, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA
“Throughout NCLA’s battles with state authorities over unlawful Covid-era policies, we referred to these power grabs as ‘Governors Gone Wild.’ Few states held a candle to Massachusetts when it came to Covid craziness, but the Bay State stood alone in the Orwellian spying on its own citizens exposed by this case.”
— Mark Chenoweth, President and Chief Legal Officer, NCLA
For more information visit the case page here.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
Joe Martyak New Civil Liberties Alliance 703-403-1111 joe.martyak@ncla.legal
