Privacy Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching the title or clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Possible New York regulations aimed at protecting kids against addictive feeds raise significant privacy concerns, tech industry and consumer privacy groups agreed in comments reviewed Tuesday by Privacy Daily. The groups weighed in Monday on a Sept. 15 NPRM from the state attorney general's office to implement the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act.
Possible federal preemption of state laws and concerns about whether the FTC has the bandwidth to enforce new kids’ privacy and safety measures came up frequently during a hearing Tuesday of the House Commerce Committee subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. The session was meant to discuss nearly 20 kids’ privacy and safety bills (see 2511250080).
Industry and consumer advocates have weighed in on nearly 20 kids privacy and safety bills set for a subcommittee hearing Tuesday in the House Commerce Committee (see 2511250080). In written testimony posted over the weekend, some witnesses additionally warned the lawmakers against inadvertently weakening privacy protections in an effort to promote online safety.
The California attorney general’s $1.4 million settlement with mobile games company Jam City demonstrates that enforcers are focused on making opt-outs easy for consumers and that companies’ handling of teenagers’ data is important, said privacy lawyers in interviews and recent blog posts. It also shows that mobile apps -- not just websites -- are in regulators’ crosshairs, they said.
The FTC’s statutory removal protections are unconstitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor doesn’t apply to a modern FTC exercising substantial executive power, DOJ argued Monday before the high court.
A Nov. 6 joint settlement between three states and software company Illuminate Education over a data breach that exposed students' information highlights regulators' focus on protecting minors’ data, said privacy pros and an attorney in interviews. In addition, the incident and settlement show that no matter what sector a breach occurs in, the principles of information security are similar, the attorney said.
Election year 2026 could drive more headline-grabbing state privacy enforcement, said Womble Bond privacy attorney Tyler Bridegan in an interview with Privacy Daily. In general, state privacy enforcement seems to be at the "very beginning of the bell curve,” said Bridegan, who was recently director of privacy and tech enforcement for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). Also, Bridegan praised Ryan Baasch, another alumnus of the Texas AG's office, who's expected to be nominated as an FTC commissioner by President Donald Trump.
The European Commission's Digital Omnibus, announced Nov. 19 (see 2511190005), sparked strong support and opposition from EU lawmakers at a streamed Tuesday evening plenary discussion with Henna Virkkunen, EC executive vice-president, tech sovereignty, security and democracy.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday allowed a Florida law banning kids from social media to go into effect, ruling the state's attorney general's challenge will likely succeed on the merits. Judge Robin Rosenbaum registered a dissent in the 2-1 decision.