A U.S. District Court of Southern New York judge granted a preliminary injunction Friday prohibiting Treasury Department employees who are not in a Senate-confirmed position from accessing department systems that contain personally identifiable information (PII) or financial information of payees.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia on Friday denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Treasury Department by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s access to sensitive information.

On Tuesday, monetization platform Patreon asked the U.S. District Court for Northern California to reject more than 900 opt-outs in a settlement about privacy violations. Patreon argued the opt-outs, submitted by the law firm Lexclaim, the contingent objector in the case, violate the settlement agreement’s ban on group opt-outs and did not comply with the court-approved class notice.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), its acting director Charles Ezell, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk, among others, filed an opposition motion Wednesday against the American Federation of Government Employees, which sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) against OPM and DOGE, alleging the government violated the Privacy Act. In their opposition, OPM and DOGE argued that government employees have not suffered a cognizable injury from their activities.

The U.S. District Court of Montana ordered a stay of proceedings in a case about the state’s attempt at banning TikTok Wednesday, after the parties jointly moved for the motion.

NetChoice renewed its motion to stay district court proceedings Tuesday in a case about California’s SB-976, a social media law that the association alleges undermines free speech and privacy principles and leaves Californians at risk of data breaches and identity theft (see 2501060009).

T-Mobile made its final written arguments this week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against a $80 million fine imposed by the FCC for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. The FCC and the government defended the fines in January during the last weeks of President Joe Biden's administration (see 2501130061). Oral argument is scheduled for March 24.

Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Charles Ezell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday opposed the Electronic Privacy Information Coalition's motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), arguing that EPIC is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its case. EPIC sued over the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) alleged illegal seizure of personnel records and payment system data, and asked the courts for a TRO to end the unlawful actions.

The U.S. District Court for Northern California denied Google’s motion to reject a request by almost 70,000 claimants in a class action suit about recording Google Assistant conversations without consent Friday. This allows the claimants to leave the class suit and file individual arbitrations against Google.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) on Tuesday opposed a motion by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) to dismiss a challenge to a kids social media bill. CCIA said Moody’s objections are meritless and focus more on the way the complaint is organized, rather than its content.