Lindsey Tonsager, Jenna Zhang, and Irene Kim of Covington and Burling summarize some recent bills signed into law. From their article: Companion Chatbots. Adam’s Law (SB 1119) requires operators of a “companion chatbot” to determine the age of users consistent with the Digital Age Assurance Act and imposes a series of obligations before making a...

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Jason Parham reports: We’ve all been there. You meet someone new on a dating app, start to envision a life together, only to wonder: Is the person actually who they say they are? It’s an experience that has led many singles, sometimes out of concern or just genuine curiosity, to prescreen dates by tracing their...

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Jonathan Bilyk reports:  A federal judge will allow lawyers who led a privacy class action lawsuit against Google to claim nearly $147 million in legal fees, nearly a third of the $425 million a jury had ordered the tech giant to pay for allegedly tracking more than 100 million people’s data after the Google users...

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DutchNews.nl reports: The Dutch’ healthcare inspectorate has found that the country’s only online abortion service fell short on its duties for care, but will let it keep operating after the site agreed to change its practices. Thuisabortus.nl, which launched in March, was the first service in the Netherlands to let women get the abortion pill prescribed...

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Diana Novak Jones reports: Meta Platforms agreed to pay a maximum $16.68 billion and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram to resolve claims by states across the U.S. that the company designed those platforms to addict children, misled consumers about their safety and improperly collected children’s personal data. The settlement resolves claims brought by 29...

Ethan Gach reports: On August 20, Rockstar Games’ parent company, Take-Two, filed petitions for subpoenas of records from Microsoft and Discord related to the recent spread of Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks. A federal court granted the requests a day later, but some users have been worried about how broad the data requests appeared to be. Discord now says...

August 21 – Today, the Department of Justice announced a $400 million settlement with TikTok, ByteDance, and affiliated entities (TikTok) resolving litigation concerning compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA). Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million upon entry of an order...

From the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), the Dutch data protection agency: The streaming platform Twitch announced that Amazon is using Twitch users’ personal data to train AI models. Users who do not want Amazon to use their streams, images and other personal data can now opt out from this feature. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), the Dutch...

Brian Krebs reports: It can be daunting to determine who’s responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who’s harvesting data from the mobile apps we use every day. That information is already semi-public, but it is not easily parsed and traditionally much of it has remained walled away in the hands of...

Jadzia Pierce and Virginie de France of Covington and Burling write: On August 14, 2026, the French Constitutional Council (the “Constitutional Council”) struck down Article 1 of France’s Act to protect minors from the risks posed by the use of social media (the “Act”), which would have barred minors under the age of fifteen from...

Jennifer Pinsof and Jillian C. York write: Access to accurate information about reproductive and maternal health can be critical. But on Meta’s platforms, simply talking about prescription medication, abortion care, or one’s own medical experiences can be enough to trigger content removals and account restrictions. That’s why EFF recently submitted a public comment to the...

David Stauss writes: On August 11, 2026, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the New Jersey Kids Code Act (A 4015), which adopts the New Jersey Age-Appropriate Design Code, into law. The privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) previously applauded the law’s passage, which it described as protecting “kids online by prohibiting invasive data practices,...

Cassandre Coyer reports: California’s privacy agency hit data broker LocateSmarter LLC with a $116,490 penalty for making it difficult for online users to opt out of the sale of their personal information. Tuesday’s fine marks the agency’s first action for violations of both the state’s privacy and data broker laws: the California Consumer Privacy Act...

Alexander Martin reports: A 20-year-old man was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for coercing more than 100 girls worldwide into sexual and self-harm activity using platforms such as Snapchat, Telegram and Discord, British authorities said. Justin Swaddle, of Leeds in northern England, targeted 117 female victims aged 13 to 17, according to the...

Lindsey Tonsager, Jenna Zhang, and Irene Kim of Covington and Burling write: On July 28, 2026, the New York Office of the Attorney General released final rules (the “Rules”) implementing the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which goes into effect on January 25, 2027. The SAFE for Kids Act requires online “addictive social media...

Oh, FFS. Ravie Lakshmanan reports: Meta has announced that its new artificial intelligence (AI) model Muse Image lets people use public Instagram posts and reels to generate AI content, and it’s enabled by default. “You can also @-mention Instagram accounts in the Meta AI app to bring specific Instagram profiles right into your images,” the...

Suzanne Smalley reports: The European Parliament has voted to bring back a rule giving big tech permission to scan users’ messages to hunt for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a process that critics call Chat Control. Thursday’s vote occurred the day before summer recess and was the product of an unusual legislative procedure requiring an...

Steve Alder writes: Memorial Healthcare Services, a nonprofit healthcare provider serving patients in Southern California, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over its use of pixels and other tracking, web analytics, and advertising technologies on its website. The tools are alleged to have been added to the website without the knowledge or consent...

Julia Conley writes: Opponents of a bill that is purported to protect children online said Monday night, after the legislation passed in the US House, that laws are “urgently” needed to stop Big Tech companies from preying on kids’ vulnerabilities. “The KIDS Act is not that piece of legislation,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who was one of 117 lawmakers who voted against the Kids Internet...

Seen on FourthAmendment.com: Yahoo and NCMEC didn’t act as government agents when they scanned defendant’s email account for hash values of CSAM. They were not required to do so, but did so and warned customers they would. NCMEC passed on the information to the local police who got a search warrant. United States v. Williamson, 2026...