Ariana Grande has won a legal battle allowing her to fast-track the process of unmasking hackers accused of stealing and selling her unreleased music, photos and videos on the dark web. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark H. Epstein granted the singer a fast-track subpoena on 19 August, meaning she does not have to comply with the standard waiting period for notifying defendants, as she has no way of identifying the hackers responsible. This matters because it strengthens her ability to pursue those behind repeated breaches of her personal and professional accounts before evidence or identifying data disappears.

Grande's invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, filed on 27 July, alleges that hackers used stolen login credentials and phishing schemes to access accounts belonging to her, her photographers and her producers, taking recording session footage, demos and unreleased masters that were then sold for "significant sums of money". Her legal team says 45 songs were stolen and leaked in 2023 alone, part of hundreds of similar incidents dating back to 2011. The judge agreed that delay risked further theft and the loss of data needed to trace the culprits. Separately, Grande is currently performing a 10-date residency at London's O2 Arena, though her team has said she plans to "step back from visibility" afterwards, and she has withdrawn from a planned West End debut in Sunday In The Park With George.