Ryan Knappenberger reports: A federal judge Friday expressed doubt that agents from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency had the authority to access wide swaths of data at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, pushed the…
Category: Breaches
Texas investigating DeepSeek for violating data privacy law
Suzanne Smalley reports: Texas on Friday announced it is investigating the Chinese AI company DeepSeek for allegedly violating the state’s data privacy law. Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office also has requested relevant documents from Google and Apple, seeking their “analysis” of the inexpensive and open source DeepSeek app and asking what documentation they required from…
Judge Denies Kochava’s Motion to Dismiss FTC’s Suit Over Selling Geolocation Data
There’s an update to the FTC case against Kochava for selling geolocation data. Kochava had previously tried to fight the FTC’s enforcement action, but was told in July, 2023 that the FTC’s suit would go forward. Now Hunton Andrews Kurth writes: On February 3, 2025, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the District of…
DOGE Betrays Foundational Commitments of the Privacy Act of 1974
Law professor Danielle Citron writes: Under the auspices of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” Elon Musk and former staffers—all recent college and high school graduates—have been given access to agency databases teeming with sensitive personal information. The group has entered the Treasury Department’s payment system, which stores federal tax returns, Social Security numbers, home…