Zack Whittaker reports: Apple’s plan to change a privacy feature that lets paying customers hide their real email addresses when creating online accounts could make it easier for apps and websites to block anonymous sign-ups. Apple’s Hide My Email is an iCloud+ feature that generates anonymous email addresses under the @icloud.com domain, which then forward messages to...

Jon Brodkin reports: AT&T and Verizon lost an attempt to overturn fines for selling users’ real-time location data without consent, as the Supreme Court ruled today that the Federal Communications Commission process for issuing financial penalties did not violate the right to a jury trial. AT&T convinced the US Court of Appeals for the 5th...

Greg Bensinger reports: Amazon was sued on Monday by a Virginia resident over what he said were privacy violations after the company’s Ring doorbell cameras at friends and ​family members’ homes collected and stored images of his face using facial recognition ‌software. The plaintiff, Charles Sigwalt, who is seeking class-action status, sued Amazon in federal...

A May 21, 2026 press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against Meta Platforms Inc. and WhatsApp LLC (collectively “WhatsApp”) after the company misled consumers regarding the strength and scope of its privacy protections for its messaging app, WhatsApp. WhatsApp is widely marketed as a secure messaging service...

Sandra Matz, Columbia University “You have zero privacy … Get over it,” Scott McNealy, then CEO of Sun Microsystems, declared in 1999. What might have sounded like a bold claim at the turn of the millennium has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy in today’s era of big data and artificial intelligence. Computer algorithms – step-by-step...

Zack Whittaker reports: The Dutch government has blocked American IT giant Kyndryl from acquiring Solvinity, a Dutch cloud provider that hosts the Netherlands’ online identity platform. The government in The Hague said the deal poses a possible “risk to the public interest.” Dutch minister for the digital economy Willemijn Aerdts said in a machine-translated letter published Monday...

Tech companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft are ignoring data controls mandated under California law, researchers say. By: Colin Lecher A new audit has found that websites across the internet may be failing to abide by California privacy law, ignoring a requirement to not track visitors who set a privacy control. The report, from researchers...

Steve Alder reports: Tempus AI, a publicly traded healthcare artificial intelligence company, is facing multiple class action lawsuits over the alleged unauthorized collection and disclosure of genetic testing results, which were derived from genetic testing by Ambry Genetics Corporation (Ambry Genetics). Tempus AI used Ambry Genetics’ genetic database to train its AI models. Tempus AI...

Margaret Attridge reports: A federal judge Thursday indicated he would grant preliminary approval to a proposed $56 million class action settlement over a lawsuit that accused period tracking app Flo of sharing users’ highly sensitive information with third parties, including Google. “I have to get rid of this thing. No one has gotten paid. This...

Odia Kagan of FoxRothschild writes: The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante) recently fined online classifieds platform Bakeca S.r.l. after an unknown user published two ads, including an explicit offer for sex work, listing the phone number of a person who had nothing to do with the ads and never consented to their publication. The decision,...

Ernesto Van der Sar writes: HBO has obtained a DMCA subpoena, ordering X Corp. to identify the person behind a Euphoria fan account that allegedly posted spoilers from unaired episodes of Season 3. The action comes just days before the show’s long-awaited premiere this weekend, but it remains unclear what the company plans to do...

Odia Kagan of FoxRothschild writes: A new federal court decision denied a motion to dismiss in a case alleging Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) claims arising from the sharing of health information through a website’s online tracking technology. What does this case teach and what should healthcare companies be doing about it? Recap of...

From the what-can-possibly-go-wrong dept., Rachel Sim reports: The Cabinet of Japan has approved a bill amending the Act on the Protection of Personal Information to support AI innovation and development. This marks a shift from a consent-based model towards a more flexible framework that prioritises data use for innovation. Previous regulation enforced that data such...

Over on Codamail (fka Cotse.net), Steve Gielda has updated his research on VPN infrastructure and its implications for your privacy. From that article: The Question VPN providers market themselves as independent services in diverse jurisdictions. This investigation asks a structural question: does the global VPN industry’s physical infrastructure actually reflect that diversity, or does it...

Top Class Actions reports: Google agreed to a $135 million class action settlement to resolve claims that it used Android devices to transfer information to Google without user permission, consuming cellular data. The Google class action settlement benefits consumers who have used mobile devices running the Android operating system to access the internet through cellular...

George Chidi reports: In recent city council meetings in Dunwoody, Georgia, a spokesman for Flock Safety, a Georgia-based firm that provides automated license plate readers, has found himself in the hot seat again. For two months running, some residents of the affluent north Atlanta suburb in the region’s tech corridor have been demanding an end...

Shaanth Nanguneri reports: The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Lane County man’s conviction for encouraging child sex abuse, ruling that local authorities subjected him to a warrantless search when monitoring his use of a restaurant’s free wireless internet network. In 2018 and 2019, Oakridge resident Randall De Witt Simons had accessed an A&W...

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against OkCupid and its affiliate Match Group Americas over allegations OkCupid deceived users of its dating app by sharing their personal information, including photos and location information, with an unrelated third party, contrary to OkCupid’s privacy promises. As part of a settlement, OkCupid, operated by Dallas-based Humor Rainbow,...

Jonathan Bilyk reports: Class action lawsuits are uploading into federal court against Facebook- and Instagram-parent company Meta and eyewear maker Luxottica and other companies associated with the development of Meta AI Glasses, accusing the companies of allegedly violating federal and California laws by allegedly surreptitiously recording users’ surroundings and then using that information to train...

Hunton Andrews Kurth writes: On March 3, 2026, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CalPrivacy”) announced its first California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) enforcement action involving student privacy, requiring 2080 Media, Inc., d/b/a PlayOn Sports (“PlayOn”), to pay a $1.10 million fine for alleged violations of the CCPA in a stipulated order. PlayOn is a media and technology company...