Department store Bloomingdale's was hit with a class-action complaint Monday over violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act for allegedly sharing personal information and data with social media platform TikTok without user consent.
The Utah Senate Business Committee unanimously cleared a bill Friday that enacts provisions related to social media data portability and interoperability.
A video games industry lobbyist raised questions Thursday about Meta’s involvement in an Alabama child online safety bill requiring app stores to check users’ ages. However, at a livestreamed hearing, the Alabama Senate Children Committee supported SB-187, an app store age-verification bill spotted in several other states including Utah. The panel also cleared SB-186, requiring that phone and tablet manufacturers activate internet filters by default to protect kids.
TikTok moved to dismiss a case that New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) brought for alleged violations of the state's consumer-protection law. The AG lacks jurisdiction to bring the case, and federal law bars many of its counts, the social media platform's motion said.
An Iowa social media bill requiring age verification cleared the state’s House Judiciary Committee by a 19-2 vote on Tuesday. The committee approved HF-278, which says that platforms must not permit those younger than 18 to obtain accounts without parental consent. Child online safety bills advanced in multiple other states this week, too (see 2502250017).
A Vermont Senate panel weighed changes to an age-appropriate design code bill (S-69) at a meeting Wednesday. The Institutions Committee was scheduled to meet again about the bill Thursday.
The Connecticut Senate will vote on an AI bill by Sen. James Maroney (D) this year, as it did last year, declared President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D) at a press conference ahead of a Wednesday hearing on SB-2. While Looney said passage of the bill is urgent, Connecticut's chief innovation officer told a hearing the state risks regulating too soon and getting it wrong.
New York state's attorney general will likely play a more prominent role in privacy and cybersecurity oversight in 2025, said Morrison Foerster lawyers in a blog post Monday.
State bills on child online safety received key committee OKs in several states this week. Kids privacy has been a focus for state legislatures this year (see 2501170053).
A federal judge for the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia on Thursday granted class-action status to a plaintiff who alleged that health and medical corporation WebMD violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by disclosing video-viewing information to Meta Platforms. WebMD had argued that class certification should not be granted because the proposed class is not adequately defined or ascertainable and that individual privacy settings impede the commonality requirement.