Zach Weissmueller reports: The war against anonymity is raging in Europe. “The witch hunters work like a mob, and if enough of them phone the police, the police are going to come,” says Bernie Spofforth, a political activist who was detained by U.K. police for a social media post. It’s coming to the United States,...

We missed posting this during Digital Parenting Week, but it is still excellent advice. On October 29, Paige Collins of EFF wrote: In today’s digital world, the internet is an essential resource for young people to access information, explore community, and find themselves. But we know that this often comes alongside fears of experiencing online...

Kelly Sandberg of Troutman Amin, LLP writes: In Shirley Vanasch et al. v. GoFundMe Inc., Plaintiffs Sal Munoz and Shirley Vanasch brought an action against Defendant GoFundMe for violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), Cal. Penal Code §§ 631 and 638.51, and common law fraud, deceit and/or misrepresentation for the use of...

Zack Whittaker reports: Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts. A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech...

Kelly Sandberg of Troutman Amin, LLP writes: In Shirley Vanasch et al. v. GoFundMe Inc., Plaintiffs Sal Munoz and Shirley Vanasch brought an action against Defendant GoFundMe for violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), Cal. Penal Code §§ 631 and 638.51, and common law fraud, deceit and/or misrepresentation for the use of...

Zack Whittaker reports: Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts. A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech...

Jim Vorel reports: This has been one hell of a year, especially when it comes to social media giant Meta getting its digital ass handed to it in the courtroom. It’s only been a few months, after all, since Mark Zuckerberg’s goliath reached a landmark settlement with 47 different states, and agreed to pay a...

Jillian C. York and Sheila B. Lalwani, a doctoral student and recent COMPASS Fellow hosted by EFF, write: Age verification proposals are often presented as a simple tradeoff: sacrifice a little privacy to better safeguard children online. But that framing overlooks a more fundamental question. What happens to people who cannot verify their age at...

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,...