Parental consent is key to ensuring that kids are protected at school, a panel at the Student Privacy and Parental Consent event said Friday. At the same time, too much choice in consent and opt-outs can spur inequality in education, panelists warned. Public Interest Privacy Center (PIPC), Toyo University and George Washington Law hosted the event.

A significant proposed edit to the Maryland privacy law’s data minimization rule would be “a huge boon to the companies that already exploit our data,” Eric Null, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) privacy & data project co-director, said Monday. However, Keir Lamont, Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) senior director-U.S. legislation, said the bill would bring clarity only for businesses that don’t handle sensitive data.

It’s up to social media companies, which make “trillions of dollars” a year, to determine how to effectively verify users’ ages and parental consent for minors, said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) on Monday. Tong urged legislators to pass a kids’ social media bill (HB-6857) at a livestreamed Connecticut General Law Committee hearing. Tech industry groups condemned the proposal in statements.

Courts are responding appropriately to the Trump administration’s disregard for federal privacy law, consumer advocates said Monday as federal injunctions mount against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) (see 2502070050).

Sensitive information and transparency are key privacy issues that will continue attracting litigation, including in Texas, which has become a major player in regulation and enforcement, Odia Kagan, a partner in the law firm Fox Rothschild, said in an interview.

Though the U.S. education system has focused on gaining parental consent for data protection and privacy issues within schools, student consent should also be important, said a panel discussing the balance between parental consent and privacy at the Student Privacy and Parental Consent conference. Public Interest Privacy Center (PIPC), Toyo University and George Washington Law hosted the event Friday.

A coalition of 14 state attorneys general said Thursday they will sue to block Elon Musk’s data-collection efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Meanwhile, congressional Republicans and Democrats want more information about the authority DOGE is using to collect sensitive information (see 2502050046).

AI is an increasing part of privacy compliance jobs, practitioners said at Privado’s Bridge Summit web conference Thursday. Data protection officers (DPOs) are weighing ethics for AI usage across the business, while privacy engineers are mulling how they themselves might use large language models (LLMs) to automate compliance processes, they said.

A privacy expert who worked on Maryland's age-appropriate design code (AADC) said she hopes it can better withstand legal challenges than the California version of the law.

Nebraska should avoid passing AI legislation with onerous reporting requirements and overly broad definitions, industry groups told the state's Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing Thursday.