Privacy news came from every level this week, from a Supreme Court ruling to a House vote to a wave of state laws.
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- Supreme Court ruling on location data
- The House passes youth online safety legislation
- State laws: data broker registries spreading across the country
What do all three have in common? Each is trying to shore up a much needed national privacy standard.
SCOTUS: Protecting your cellphone location data
The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that police must follow the Fourth Amendment when they sweep up cellphone location data near a crime scene. These geofence searches work in reverse of a normal warrant: instead of starting with a suspect, they start with everyone in the area. Justice Kagan wrote that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in where their phone has been, even when that data sits with a third party. A real win, but a narrow one. The Court said the protection exists without spelling out what it requires.
The House passed age verification protections for kids
The House passed the KIDS Act 267 to 117. It adds safety features and parental controls, limits targeted ads to minors, and requires age verification for adult sites. The catch: confirming who is a minor means checking everyone, usually through government ID or face scans. The EFF warns companies will default to ID checks across their whole platforms, chilling anonymous speech and creating one more pile of sensitive data to breach. Verifying age means collecting identity, and that is its own privacy risk. The bill now heads to a divided Senate.
States Want Data Brokers on a Public List
Four states now require data brokers, the companies that collect, store, and sell your data, to register in a public database, with Connecticut the latest. The registries give people a way to send deletion requests and give enforcers a list to watch. Their appeal is their simplicity, which is why they pass in red and blue states alike. Washington is catching on, with registry language in both the SECURE Data Act and the KIDS Act.
A court ruling, a House bill, and a stack of state laws don’t usually share an update. This week they do, because each reaches for the same thing: a baseline privacy framework the U.S. still lacks. The Court can name a protection but can’t write the rules. The House can pass a bill that may die in the Senate. States can fill gaps one at a time but can’t cover the country. Until there is a national standard with teeth, your privacy depends on which court, which chamber, and which state you happen to be in.
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