Organizations providing content accessible to kids “should prepare for greater legal and regulatory scrutiny,” said an IAPP analysis on age assurance published Monday.
Bluesky's decision to block Mississippi IP addresses from its social media platforms highlights the inefficiencies and problems that come with age-verification laws, said consumer privacy and tech industry officials. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state age-verification law to stand last week (see 2508140048), Bluesky announced its response in a statement Friday (see 2508220047).
The breach and subsequent lawsuit against a winemaker that allegedly compromised the data of 26,000 customers "underscores the vulnerability of companies handling sensitive customer information," McDermott Will lawyers said in a blog post Thursday.
Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses rather than comply with a Mississippi age-verification law that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to stand last week (see 2508140048), the social media company said in a statement Friday.
The age-assurance landscape is shifting so quickly that it feels like "building the plane while flying it," IAPP Vice President Caitlin Fennessy said Wednesday during an IAPP webinar. With new laws, technologies and approaches cropping up globally, the privacy community must become more engaged in age-assurance activities and decisions, speakers said.
Montanans can now add state IDs to their mobile wallets, enhancing security, privacy and convenience, the Montana Motor Vehicle Division said Tuesday. Users can add driver's licenses or a state-issued ID to Apple and Google devices, said the division: The mobile IDs let users prove their identity to access services online, in apps and in person, while providing “age verification to participating businesses without sharing any additional information such as name, address, or birthdate when making an age-restricted purchase.”
TikTok exploits children by using addictive design features, and in turn profits off their time on the social media app, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. These are deceptive and unfair business practices that violate state consumer protection laws, he added.
Age-verification mandates will increase the number of data breaches, such as the recent incident involving dating safety app Tea (see 2507280017), ACT | The App Association said in a blog post Friday.
London's High Court of Justice Monday tossed a challenge by nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation to provisions of the U.K. Online Safety Act (OSA) it claimed could jeopardize the privacy and safety of Wikipedia contributors, but stressed that contributors must be protected.
The U.S. Supreme Court's June decision that upheld a Texas law requiring age verification for access to porn sites (see 2506270041) could have wide implications for future legislation at the federal and state levels, said privacy lawyers.