Politico

Lawmakers across the nation are increasingly looking to a new tool to protect people’s personal data online: A public repository of the companies collecting, selling and sharing people’s phone numbers, addresses, and shopping habits. Four states currently have laws on the books requiring so-called data brokers—the companies that collect and sell millions of people’s information—to register in a public database, serving as a directory for people to send data deletion requests and potential targets for enforcers.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has transformed his office into one of the nation’s most aggressive litigators against Big Tech, suing companies including Meta, Netflix, WhatsApp and Discord, and building a dedicated privacy-enforcement operation. Now, a Democrat running to replace him says that’s one part of his legacy worth preserving. “There’s so many things I would condemn Paxton’s tenure as attorney general for,” said Texas state Sen.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of millions of Americans’ private information—including Social Security numbers and citizenship status—saying the administration has fed knowingly inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls. “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S.

While social media bans for kids have gained a foothold in more than 40 countries, it’s still an open question whether they’re legal in the US.

The AI-driven data center boom is colliding with the politics of affordability, and House candidates are increasingly caught in the middle. Across the country, data centers have become targets of community opposition to rising electricity bills, water consumption, land use and the influence of Big Tech. In Wisconsin, community dissent has disrupted five data center proposals.

A growing movement in state capitals is trying to get ahead of fears that artificial intelligence will soon be able to use troves of data on every American to pinpoint exactly how much someone is willing to pay for a gallon of milk or a plane ticket. As concerns about the cost of living and anxieties about AI’s impact on everyday life continue to rise, lawmakers are pushing regulations to prevent algorithms from using personal data gathered from mobile apps, web browsers and other online tools to automatically estimate the highest price a person is willing to pay.

Donald Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine has included saber-rattling towards Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba; tough talk towards the leftist leaders of Colombia and Brazil; and overt interference in the elections of Argentina and Honduras. But when it comes to small, landlocked Paraguay, the Trump administration has deployed a different playbook: assiduous, patient diplomacy enlivened by the government’s newly aligned interests in making the country a hub for U.S.-backed data center projects.