USA TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS Contributed by: Paul Lanois, Fieldfisher
Although Tilting Point took some corrective action, a joint investigation by the California Department of Justice and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office found that Tilting Point was in violation of the CCPA and COPPA in connection with how the mobile app handled children’s data. In particular, it was held that the age screen did not ask age in a neutral manner, meaning that children were not encouraged to enter their age correctly to be directed to a child-version of the game. It was also found that the inadvertently misconfigured third-party software development kits (SDKs) resulted in the collection and sale of kids’ data without parental consent. In September 2024, the Texas Attorney General announced a settlement with a Dallas-based artificial intelligence healthcare technology com - pany called Pieces Technologies, resolving alle - gations that the company deployed its products at several Texas hospitals after making a series of false and misleading statements about the accuracy and safety of its products. An investi - gation conducted by the Texas Attorney General found that the company had made deceptive claims about the accuracy of its healthcare AI products. The settlement agreement includes requirements related to disclosures in connec - tion with the marketing and advertising of the company’s products or services, prohibitions against misrepresentations (including the inde - pendence of an endorser or reviewers of a busi - ness product or service) and documentation obligations concerning potentially harmful uses of its products or services. A coalition of 14 state attorneys general, led by California and New York, has also sued TikTok under state unfair and deceptive acts and prac - tices laws and COPPA, alleging that the service is harmful for young users’ mental health and
knowingly collects the personal information of children under 13. Finally, the California Privacy Protection Agency announced an investigative sweep concern - ing data broker compliance with the registra - tion requirements of the California Delete Act. A few weeks later, it announced settlements with Growbots, Inc. and UpLead LLC for alleg - edly failing to register and pay the annual data broker registration fee. Growbots agreed to pay USD35,400 to resolve the claims, and UpLead agreed to pay USD34,400. Federal enforcement actions The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced significant settlements in 2024, resolving alle - gations of the unlawful collection, sale and use of precise location information by data brokers (X-Mode, InMarket Media, Mobilewalla and Gra - vy Analytics), and this trend is expected to con - tinue. Following the change of administration, Commissioner Andrew Ferguson has assumed the chairmanship of the FTC. His concurring and dissenting statement in December 2024 on the Mobilewalla and Gravy Analytics cases sug - gests that we will likely continue to see unfair - ness claims against organisations engaging in the unlawful collection and sale of location data, whereas claims alleging that organisations unfairly categorised consumers based on sensi - tive characteristics are less likely. Data transfers On 27 December 2024, the US Department of Justice issued a final rule carrying out Execu - tive Order (EO) 14117 on “Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern”. The EO charged the US Department of Justice with establishing and implementing a new regulatory programme to
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