Enforcement has focused heavily in 2025 on surface-level, obvious and quick fixes, privacy lawyers said in recent interviews. While this trend will continue in 2026, additional tools and other factors should keep enforcement an area to watch, they said.
As retail marketing picks up speed, online advertisers and publishers are increasingly eyeing data clean rooms (DCRs) to ensure GDPR compliance, Fieldfisher data protection attorney Stephan Zimprich said in an interview last week.
A slew of comprehensive privacy law bills from 2025 are expected to return in the new year. While no new states joined about 20 others with broad consumer privacy laws this year, 16 additional states had bills that either will carry over to 2026 or could be reintroduced.
Kids privacy and child safety online have been hot-button issues on both sides of the aisle and will remain so in 2026, said privacy lawyers in interviews with Privacy Daily. Despite the bipartisan focus and federal bills pending on these issues, several of the lawyers were doubtful about passage of a national law next year.
Efforts continue to pass a New Mexico comprehensive privacy bill that includes a private right of action, but logistical issues in the legislature could prevent the measure from getting a hearing in 2026, supporters said.
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Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, which sets privacy rules for third-party developers of apps offered on the App Store, violates EU antitrust rules, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) said Monday, fining the company more than 98.6 million euros ($116 million).
Republicans need to be outspoken against federal efforts to block state AI laws because the issue isn’t going to “blow over,” Ohio Sen. Louis Blessing (R) said in a recent interview.
A district court’s decision Tuesday to grant a preliminary injunction against Texas’ App Store Accountability Act surprised some, but not others, as privacy pros digested the Computer & Communications Industry Association's initial victory.
Instacart said Monday it will immediately end what it called price testing following a Consumer Reports (CR) study that the organization said proved it used personal data to set its online grocery prices. However, Instacart also denied its "pricing tests" included surveillance pricing or dynamic pricing, "and were never based on supply or demand, personal data, demographics, or individual shopping behavior.”