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Key developments
New Jersey bans sensitive data sales
Mondaq's Jonathan Ende reports New Jersey enacted A5328 on June 30, amending the New Jersey Data Privacy Act to prohibit the sale, offering for sale, or licensing of sensitive data by any individual or legal entity, regardless of the Act's normal applicability thresholds. The law covers categories including health conditions, financial account access data, citizenship or immigration status, biometric identifiers, children's data, and precise geolocation. It also creates a public registry for data brokers and data collectors, with annual fees from $5,000 to $1.5 million, $50,000 penalties per sensitive-data record sold, and registry provisions taking effect March 27, 2027.
Why it matters
The law creates one of the broader state restrictions on sensitive-data monetization and may pull non-broker companies into registration obligations if they sell or license data to brokers.
Sources & driving stories
MONDAQ · Jonathan Ende
Mondaq coverageAssuranceAmerica discloses breach affecting seven million
Check Point Research's July 13 threat intelligence report says AssuranceAmerica disclosed a breach affecting about 7 million people after attackers used compromised employee credentials to access company systems. Exfiltrated data included names, contact information, driver license numbers, insurance policy and account data, vehicle details, and claims information. PCWorld's Alaina Yee separately noted the breach was detected in March 2026 and affected nearly 7 million drivers.
Why it matters
Driver-license, insurance-policy, vehicle, and claims data can enable targeted phishing, identity fraud, and insurance-related scams at large scale.
Sources & driving stories
CHECK POINT RESEARCH
Check Point Research coveragePCWORLD · Alaina Yee
PCWorld coverageYakima advances guardrails for Flock cameras
The Yakima Herald reports Yakima City Council voted 5-2 to direct staff to prepare an ordinance within 90 days applying Washington's automatic license plate reader protections to all live Flock cameras in the city. Yakima County plans to install more than 200 live cameras using $2 million in leftover American Rescue Plan Act funds for a two-year pilot that could feed a real-time information center; the cameras do not use facial recognition, but AI can identify colors and clothing. WILX's Alek Harasim reports a Deflock Lansing-associated group also met in Michigan to push Lansing to cancel its Flock Safety contract over warrantless vehicle tracking concerns.
Why it matters
Local governments are beginning to test whether ALPR-style privacy rules can constrain broader live-video and vehicle-analytics deployments.
Sources & driving stories
YAKIMA HERALD
Yakima Herald coverageWILX · Alek Harasim
WILX coverageWorth noting
WORTH NOTING
ApolloMD settlement claims opened
Class Action U reports ApolloMD agreed to a $4.02 million settlement over a May 2025 Qilin-linked ransomware incident affecting 626,540 people, with eligible claimants able to seek up to $5,000 in documented losses, an estimated $75 alternative payment, and one year of CyEx medical data monitoring before a September 30, 2026 claims deadline.
WORTH NOTING
First American faces DataTree lawsuit
National Mortgage News's Andrew Martinez reports four homeowners filed a California federal class action alleging First American's DataTree platform used names and identity attributes in a commercial sales funnel and enabled access to phone numbers and email addresses without consent.
WORTH NOTING
German smart-camera backlash grows
Yahoo reports Leipzig startup Urban Privacy is marketing anti-tracking clothing and accessories as Germany debates smart cameras in railway stations and Hesse police test real-time facial recognition in Frankfurt station areas.
Still unclear
OPEN QUESTION
Will New Jersey's registry sweep in non-brokers?
A5328's new data collector category covers businesses with direct consumer relationships if they sell or license personal data to data brokers, creating compliance exposure beyond traditional broker models.
OPEN QUESTION
Can ALPR laws govern live analytics?
Yakima's proposed approach would extend state ALPR protections to live Flock cameras, but the county's broader real-time video and AI analytics plan may raise questions not covered by license-plate-specific rules.