On December 17, 2025, a bipartisan group of 23 Attorneys General from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, sent a comment letter to the Federal Communications Commission
Minnesota
Lawmakers Warn Governors About Sharing Drivers’ Data with Federal Government
A group of 40 Democratic lawmakers have sent a letter to 19 state governors warning that they may be “inadvertently sharing drivers’ data with federal immigration authorities.”
According to the letter, the states “are providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies ‘with frictionless, self-service access to the personal data of all of…
Privacy Tip #428 – Getting Text Messages From E-ZPass or Toll Road Operators? They’re Scams Coming from China
This week, I received a fake text message (a smish) saying my E-ZPass account was overdue and that I urgently needed to pay it. That’s a new one and, apparently, quite effective. Luckily, I knew it was a scam, but others were victimized.
According to the website Krebs on Security, security researchers “say the…
Minnesota’s Comprehensive Data Privacy Law: Does it Apply and How is it Different than Other Privacy Laws?
Minnesota was the nineteenth state to pass a comprehensive data privacy law, the Minnesota Consumer Privacy Act (H.F. 4757) (MCPA), which becomes effective on July 31, 2025.
While we continue to see more of these laws popping up across the country, one of the most important analyses that a business can do when these new…
State Legislatures Eye AI Regulation
A growing number of states have enacted laws this year to study artificial intelligence (AI), ahead of possible legislative action to address expected threats to jobs, civil liberties, and property rights with the emerging technology. The specific goals of these committees have varied. For instance, Minnesota is studying how intelligence sharing with AI might enable…
Maine and North Dakota Are Latest States to Adopt the NAIC Data Security Model Law
Two more state governors, those of Maine and North Dakota, have signed bills into law that adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data security model law (Model Law). Maine and North Dakota join several other states that have already passed similar laws. Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have similar…
Consumer Reports Releases Model State Privacy Act – More States Introduce Consumer Privacy Legislation
This week, Consumer Reports published a Model State Privacy Act. The Consumer advocacy organization proposed model legislation “to ensure that companies are required to honor consumers’ privacy.” The model legislation is similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act, but seeks to protect consumer privacy rights “by default.” Some additional provisions of the model law…
Drones Make Bridge Inspections Cheaper and Easier
The United States has a lot of bridges –more than 600,000 –many of which are in disrepair or reaching the end of their planned lives. According to the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers, 9.1 percent of the bridges in the U.S. were structurally deficient in 2016, meaning that drivers made an average of 188 million trips across a deficient bridge every day. That means that inspecting bridges is a critical activity for many states. Many states are looking to drones to bolster that activity. For example, the State of Minnesota plans to make drones a standard part of its bridge inspection toolkit. While Minnesota isn’t among the states with the highest number or percentage of deficient bridges, it does struggle with the increasing costs of bridge inspections, and that’s where drones come in.
Continue Reading Drones Make Bridge Inspections Cheaper and Easier
Drones to Track Adults and Children that Suffer from Alzheimer’s and Autism
While police departments and law enforcement have been using drones for some time now, a police department in southern Minnesota, the Rochester Police Department, has recently acquired a new drone for a new purpose – to find missing (or wandering) persons who suffer from Alzheimer’s, autism and other related conditions and disorders. The drone was…
FCC Broadband Privacy Regulations Rescinded; States Consider Adopting Measures
As was expected, President Trump signed into law the rescinding of the broadband privacy regulations adopted in 2016 by the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The now rescinded regulations would have required internet service providers (ISPs) to obtain consent from a customer before using or selling the customer’s Web browsing history, app usage history,…