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Key developments
Judge blocks expanded SAVE voter checks
NPR Illinois' Jude Joffe-Block and the Texas Tribune's Dion Nissenbaum and Natalia Contreras reported that U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled Monday that the Trump administration's overhaul of the SAVE immigration-status verification system is unlawful in its current form. The ruling found DHS lacked statutory authority and violated the Privacy Act, Social Security Act and Administrative Procedure Act after agencies enabled bulk voter-list checks and linked SAVE to Social Security Administration data. The court cited misflagging of foreign-born U.S. citizens, including Texas voters, and said agencies had repurposed private information of millions of Americans using citizenship data they knew to be unreliable.
Why it matters
The decision sharply limits federal use of sensitive identity and citizenship datasets for election administration and voter-roll screening.
Sources & driving stories
NPR ILLINOIS · Jude Joffe-Block
NPR Illinois coverageTEXAS TRIBUNE · Dion Nissenbaum and Natalia Contreras
Texas Tribune coverageMAC biometric privacy suit survives dismissal
Personal Care Insights reported that a federal judge in Illinois denied MAC Cosmetics' motion to dismiss a proposed class action over its in-store and online virtual try-on tools. The Illinois plaintiff alleges MAC collected facial geometry and biometric data without adequate disclosures or written consent under BIPA. The court found the complaint sufficiently alleged, at the pleading stage, that MAC could link virtual try-on data with customer account data and use it to track product trials and conversions.
Why it matters
The ruling keeps pressure on AI-enabled retail tools that rely on face scanning to prove that biometric notice, consent and data-linking practices are lawful.
Sources & driving stories
PERSONAL CARE INSIGHTS
Personal Care Insights coverageLouisiana and Vermont add privacy laws
Mondaq's Alexandria Wood Davenport and WilmerHale's Kirk J. Nahra, Amy Olivero and Ashley Leon reported that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed the Louisiana Data Privacy Act on May 29, with an effective date of January 1, 2027. Mayer Brown reported that Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed S.71 on June 16, creating the Vermont Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act, effective January 1, 2028. Both laws follow the state comprehensive privacy model while adding notable provisions: Louisiana requires universal opt-out recognition and consent for sensitive data, while Vermont includes low thresholds, consumer health-data protections, and rights to question certain profiling uses.
Why it matters
The state privacy patchwork continues to expand, adding new compliance deadlines and more sensitive-data obligations for businesses operating across states.
Sources & driving stories
MONDAQ · Alexandria Wood Davenport
Mondaq coverageWILMERHALE · Kirk J. Nahra, Amy Olivero, Ashley Leon
WilmerHale coverageMAYER BROWN
Mayer Brown coverageWorth noting
WORTH NOTING
Texas identity-data breaches widen
Malwarebytes' Danny Bradbury reported a TPWD vendor breach affecting 3,087,721 hunting and fishing license users, while KXAN's Abigail Jones reported Texas AG Ken Paxton is investigating Carnival after a breach affecting 800,060 Texans and 6 million people worldwide.
WORTH NOTING
Browsers test anonymous access tokens
The Register reported that Cloudflare is working with Chrome, Edge and Firefox on Private Access Control Tokens, a developing standard meant to distinguish humans or authorized bots without relying on invasive tracking or repeated CAPTCHAs.
WORTH NOTING
Court rejects broad app-user subpoenas
Forbes reported that a court stopped DOJ subpoenas seeking personally identifiable information from Amazon, Apple and Google for roughly 100,000 users of the EZ Lynk car-tinkering app, while leaving room for narrower future requests.
Still unclear
OPEN QUESTION
Will SAVE ruling survive appeal?
The ruling blocks a central federal election-data initiative, but the government can appeal and related legal challenges to voter-data use remain active.
OPEN QUESTION
How meaningful is biometric consent?
The MAC case suggests courts may scrutinize not just formal disclosures, but whether consumers reasonably understand how AI try-on tools collect, link and monetize face-derived data.