Texas AG Continues Battle Against Big Tech Using Privacy Laws

Those of you who regularly read this blog know that I am not a friend of Texas AG Ken Paxton but in this case I say GO FOR IT!

In December he opened investigations into 15 technology companies regarding their privacy and safety practices for minors, using the SCOPE law and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act as a reason.

One challenge that he has with using the SCOPE act is that a federal judge, in Texas, issued an injunction against a main feature of the law. That feature would have ended ability without surfing the web without identifying yourself, a provision they call age verification. Typically this would require the user to either use a VPN to appear like they are in another state or provide a government issued ID. In order for this to work, the web site would need to keep that ID on file and track every page you visit to that ID to make sure you were not accessing content that the law prohibits minors from accessing.

In January he sued TikTok under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices law for marketing their app as safe for minors. He says they say that and still show minors inappropriate and explicit material.

In January he also sued Allstate insurance for illegally (he says – and I would agree) collecting and selling driver’s data in an effort to influence driver’s premiums, violating several state laws.

In February he announced he was going after Chinese AI company DeepSeek, again alleging privacy law violations. It doesn’t help that they are a CHINESE company. Note that he is not suing any of the American AI companies that do the same thing, so there is a bit of an anti-China theme here.

So far these efforts seem to be limited to Texas and in part this is due to Texas-specific privacy laws, but that doesn’t mean that other states can’t adopt his tactics.

Our recommendation is to (a) avoid Texas, although that is probably not possible and (b) watch what Texas and possible other states are doing and review your activities to make sure you don’t wind up getting sued as well.

While we are not lawyers, we do understand the law and can provide non-legal guidance for you. Feel free to contact us.

Credit: MoFo

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