A bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys general urged Instagram to make changes to its new location-sharing feature, citing privacy concerns, in a letter Wednesday.
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
Meta asked a federal court Monday to reverse the verdict or, alternatively, hold a new trial in a case involving allegations that the company shared sensitive health information with third parties without user consent. The social media platform argued "the evidence at trial does not fit plaintiffs’ legal claim."
The several lawsuits following the July data breach of women-only app Tea expose gaps in data governance and data protection guardrails that may be present within the entire app ecosystem, said Mary Bennett and Rob Robinson of privacy vendor HaystackID in a Friday blog post. First reported on July 25, the breach of Tea leaked 72,000 images, including 13,000 selfies with identifying information (see 2507280017). The app is intended to increase safety for online daters.
Meta could be more transparent about a new Instagram feature that lets users share their location with friends, a consumer privacy advocate said Friday. While another advocate also raised safety concerns, the company listed ways that the mapping feature protects privacy.
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.
New York Assemblymember Alex Bores (D) expects his AI safety bill, the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act, could be revised through the chapter-amendment process, the legislator told Privacy Daily on Wednesday. “We’re open to amendments that … strengthen or clarify the bill.”
Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) when it intentionally eavesdropped on users of the health app Flo Health and received sensitive data on users' menstrual cycles and reproductive health, said a federal jury decision Friday that was posted Monday. The plaintiffs alleged Flo transmitted their personal information without user consent to the social media platform and other third parties for commercial purposes.
Facebook must confront a consumer protection lawsuit after the District of Columbia Court of Appeals revived it Thursday. A lower court applied the wrong legal standard when it dismissed the case in 2022, the appeals court said.
So far in 2025, state lawmakers and regulators have focused on data related to health, children, geolocation and biometrics, said Sidley privacy attorneys Colleen Theresa Brown, Sheri Porath Rockwell and Sasha Hondagneu-Messner in a blog post Thursday.
Mississippi's attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to let stand a state law that requires parental consent for those younger than 18 to create accounts with certain digital service providers. AG Lynn Fitch (R) argued that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on July 17 allowed the previously-enjoined law to go into effect with a stay on a lower court's injunction, had "compelling, independent merits grounds for issuing the stay."