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If you thought social media needed a warning label, many state regulators agree. California recently passed a new warning label law, which will take effect on January 1, 2027. That is, unless it is challenged. Meanwhile, Colorado is fighting to keep alive a similar law following a NetChoice challenge. Other states (like Arkansas, California, Florida, Utah, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas) have not been successful, seeing similar laws stopped on First Amendment grounds.Continue Reading Warning! States Continue to Worry About Social Media and Teens

Nebraska’s governor signed a bill into law that, among other things, creates the Parental Rights in Social Media Act. The provisions of the law will go into effect July 1, 2026, unless challenged. The law is similar to several other states, most of which have been challenged (including Arkansas, California, and Utah) and some struck down.Continue Reading Growing List of States Attempting to Regulate Kids’ Social Media Accounts: Nebraska Husks Up

Regulations impacting children’s use of social media continues to be a space in motion the past few months. There have been developments at both the state level, as well as with the FTC. And there is no sign of slowing down. In this article we give a roundup of some recent developments worth keeping in mind.Continue Reading #StatusUpdate on Social Media, Apps, and Children’s Privacy

The New York Attorney General’s office and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office were busy last month when it came to children’s privacy. Both sought input from the public about regulating children’s online privacy, including on social media.Continue Reading Regulators On Both Sides of the Pond Seek Input on Children’s Privacy

Much of the focus on US privacy has been US state laws, and the potential of a federal privacy law. This focus can lead one to forget, however, that US privacy and data security law follows a patchwork approach both at a state level and a federal level. “Comprehensive” privacy laws are thus only one piece of the puzzle. There are federal and state privacy and security laws that apply based on a company’s (1) industry (financial services, health care, telecommunications, gaming, etc.), (2) activity (making calls, sending emails, collecting information at point of purchase, etc.), and (3) the type of individual from whom information is being collected (children, students, employees, etc.). There have been developments this year in each of these areas.Continue Reading Mid-Year Recap: Think Beyond US State Laws!

As it closed out 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent out requests to nine social media and video streaming companies asking them to provide more information about how they treat consumer information. The FTC indicated that it wanted to learn more about the companies’ activities in order to inform the FTC’s approach to privacy and data security. The FTC, in particular, is focused on how the privacy practices of these entities affect children and teenagers. The FTC exercised its authority under a provision of the law that allows it to gather information generally from a particular company or industry (without bringing a specific action against the company or industry). One FTC commissioner did dissent, arguing that the request the FTC made of these companies was too broad.
Continue Reading FTC Focuses on Privacy Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

As part of a flurry of new privacy legislation, California Governor Jerry Brown signed two new data privacy bills into law on September 27, 2013: S.B. 46 amending California’s data security breach notification law and A.B. 370 regarding disclosure of “do not track” and other tracking practices in online privacy policies. Both laws will come into effect on January 1, 2014.
Continue Reading California Enacts New Data Privacy Laws

Many businesses are still coasting along enjoying the marketing advantages of social media without making sure they have a good compliance program in place. For every company with a Facebook fan page or Twitter account roughly 65 percent would admit they do not have a social media policy. For companies with a social media policy, many of those policies have been lifted from online samples that may be over broad, and include provisions that have been challenged with some success in court.
Continue Reading Is Your Company’s Social Media Launch Ahead Of Its Compliance Program

I’ve spent the better part of the last few months acquainting myself with the intersection between privacy and social games. Things can be a bit complicated.[1] The goal of this article will be to explain the current state of affairs and suggest some options to consider when drafting a privacy policy that touches on social games.
Continue Reading Social Games and PRIVACY POLICY PANDEMONIUM