Electronic Privacy Information Center - EPIC

1. Ninth Circuit Deals Another Blow to Big Tech’s Campaign for Broad Immunity from Regulation, Allows Parts of California’s Design Code to Go into Effect

   Earlier today, the Ninth Circuit issued its third rebuke of NetChoice’s overbroad litigation tactics by reversing, in large part, the preliminary injunction against California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (the “CAADC”). Specifically, the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel chided NetChoice for repeatedly lodging broad First Amendment challenges to regulations without providing the legal analysis or evidentiary support required under the Supreme Court’s decision in Moody v. NetChoice.

2. DOJ Wants Sensitive Voter Data but Can’t Be Bothered to Protect It 

   Midterms loom. Congress’s failure to rein in a runaway Executive has not endeared voters. “Shock and awe” tactics do not make for good governance and may cost dearly at the polls. But the White House and its Congressional allies have a plan: control who votes.   

3. EPIC Leads Group of Law & Technology Scholars in Rebutting Social Media Companies’ Arguments that Surveillance-Based Feeds Are Constitutionally-Protected Speech

   EPIC and a group of law and technology scholars have filed an amicus brief defending California’s regulation of addictive feeds, Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976), against Big Tech’s latest constitutional challenge to the law. The three new lawsuits—filed by TikTok, Meta, and Google—claim that tech companies’ use of surveillance data … Continued

4. Maine Senate Passes Strong Privacy Bill

   A strong comprehensive privacy bill has passed the Maine Senate. The Maine Online Data Privacy Act, LD 1822, closely mirrors the privacy law Maryland passed in 2024 and would extend essential privacy protections to Mainers.

5. EPIC Leads Coalition Demanding the Government Reverse Illegal Data Grab… Again 

   EPIC, joined by 16 organizations, submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury last week objecting to the creation yet another illegal national data bank known as the Financial Assistance Programs system. This system could be used to further punish states that oppose the Administration or deny Congressionally-approved benefits to those entitled to receive them.   

6. EPIC Testifies in Support of Three Tech Policy Bills in Maryland

   These bills would put commonsense safeguards on chatbots, prohibit surveillance pricing in grocery stores, and establish a data broker registry.  

7. EPIC Testifies in Support of Michigan Kids Code

   EPIC’s testimony explained why the MI Kids Code model is the right approach to mitigate harms that kids face online.

8. SCOTUS to Hear Case Over Proper Scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA)

   On January 26, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in Salazar v. Paramount Global, a case addressing the proper scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in the digital age. The VPPA prohibits video service providers from disclosing consumers’ sensitive personal information to … Continued

9. EPIC Urges Virginia Governor to Sign Bill Banning Sale of Location Data

   EPIC has sent a letter to Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger urging her to sign S.B. 338, which bans the sale of precise geolocation data.

10. EPIC Tells Supreme Court that Geofence Searches Need a Warrant with Particularized Probable Cause

    This week, EPIC filed an amicus brief on behalf of 14 leading law & technology and Fourth Amendment scholars in the Supreme Court case Chatrie v. United States explaining why the Court should rule that geofence searches require a warrant, and why the warrant issued in this case (and many others involving geofence searches) was … Continued