In what may be the first state enforcement action under a comprehensive privacy law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued Allstate for the alleged unlawful collection, use and sale of the location data from Texans’ cellphones through software secretly embedded into mobile apps like Life360. Allstate and its subsidiary data analytics company Arity used the data to raise insurance rates, Paxton alleged at the Texas District Court of Montgomery County.
Privacy protections might be sidelined during the Trump administration in order to focus on other emerging technology, said Mallory Knodel, founder of the Social Web Foundation, in a Friday piece for TechPolicy.Press.
Digital assistant Siri was engineered to protect user privacy and audio recordings of its interactions have never been sold or stored without consent, Apple said Tuesday after agreeing to a $95 million settlement in a lawsuit that alleged Siri routinely recorded private conversations.
The FTC scored a key enforcement victory in its data privacy lawsuit against Kochava at the motion to dismiss stage, FTC Chair Lina Khan said Wednesday during a Brookings Institution event.
New York state legislators opened their 2025 session Wednesday, introducing comprehensive and healthcare-focused privacy bills, among other measures related to consumer data. Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D) offered the 2025 version of the New York Privacy Act. However, some of it is "not aligned with other comprehensive privacy laws,” which could make compliance a challenge for businesses, warned Hinshaw & Culbertson privacy attorney Cathy Mulrow-Peattie in an email Wednesday.
GameStop and the plaintiffs in a class-action suit alleging violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) agreed to dismiss the lawsuit, the parties announced in a joint stipulation of dismissal at U.S. District Court of New York Monday.
T-Mobile didn’t expect Washington state’s data breach lawsuit Monday, the carrier said in a statement. In a complaint at the state’s King County Superior Court, Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) alleged that T-Mobile knew for years about cybersecurity vulnerabilities that led to a 2021 data breach (see 2501060046). A T-Mobile spokesperson acknowledged, “We have had multiple conversations about this incident from 2021 with the Washington AG's office over the last several years and even reached out in late November to continue discussions." As such, "The office’s decision to file a lawsuit … came as a surprise,” the spokesperson added. “While we disagree with their approach and the filing’s claims, we are open to further dialogue and welcome the opportunity to resolve this issue, as we have already done with the FCC.” T-Mobile “fundamentally transformed” its cybersecurity approach during the last four years, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. District Court of Tennessee will hold a telephone status conference on Wednesday to discuss the status of a state age-verification law that took effect Jan. 1, said Judge William Campbell.
TikTok was aware its age restrictions were ineffective and thousands of minors were able to access its Live feed product, an internal investigation for the social media company showed, according to the Utah attorney general's office. The office on Friday announced the release of details that were previously redacted in its complaint filed in June against TikTok.
T-Mobile knew for years about cybersecurity vulnerabilities that led to a 2021 data breach, alleged Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) in a lawsuit against the wireless carrier Monday. The AG sought damages and injunctive relief under the state’s consumer protection and data breach notification laws in the state’s King County Superior Court (case 25-2-00308-6). Ferguson said that T-Mobile failed to adequately secure sensitive personal data of about 2 million Washington residents. Also, the company didn’t sufficiently inform customers about the breach, downplaying its severity and not disclosing everything that was compromised, he alleged. Customers received brief text messages about the breach “that omitted critical and legally required information,” said the AG office: And some customers didn’t receive information about social security numbers being exposed. “This significant data breach was entirely avoidable,” Ferguson said. “T-Mobile had years to fix key vulnerabilities in its cybersecurity systems -- and it failed.” The 2021 data breach exposes personal information of about 79 million customers nationwide.