The California Privacy Protection Agency will conduct an investigative sweep of data broker registration compliance under the state’s Delete Act, the CPPA said Wednesday. The law requires data brokers to register with the CPPA and pay an annual fee. Starting in 2026, data brokers must honor consumer requests to delete all their personal information.

New England next year might become the first U.S. region where all states have comprehensive privacy laws, a Computer & Communications Industry Association official said Wednesday as CCIA released a report on state privacy. “Much of the activity around new privacy protections took place in northeastern states this year with New Hampshire and Rhode Island passing privacy bills, while Maine and Vermont failed to get data privacy laws across the finish line,” said Alex Spyropoulos, CCIA Northeast regional policy manager. CCIA will be watching the latter two states and Massachusetts to pass bills next year, he said. “Some of the conflicts within states that didn’t ultimately pass bills were due to disagreements over standards or definitions and trying to match those with Europe’s privacy laws.” CCIA State Policy Manager Jordan Rodell urges states considering comprehensive privacy bills in 2025 to prioritize aligning their policies with other states’ laws. The CCIA report noted that many states have harmonized definitions and business requirements, but Maryland last year diverged from the pack with strict data minimization rules. “This approach could inadvertently stifle innovation and business activity within the state by limiting the flexibility of covered entities to leverage collected data for new and potentially beneficial purposes.”

NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction of a Florida law that restricts kids’ access to social media and pornography websites. The groups filed the motion Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida, following up on a complaint they submitted Monday (see 2410280021). Granting the motion would stop the Florida law from taking effect Jan. 1. The court should rule on a preliminary injunction before that date because the law “will have a substantial impact upon the First Amendment rights of members of CCIA and NetChoice, and upon the rights of users of those members’ services,” wrote the plaintiffs, who also requested oral argument before a decision is made. The law requires parental consent before children ages 14 and 15 can use social media, while prohibiting parents from overriding a ban on children 13 and younger.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission will investigate service quality issues of price-cap telecom carriers in separate, company-specific proceedings, the PSC decided Tuesday. The commission voted 5-0 at a livestreamed meeting for an order closing a 3-year-old docket (C-5303) that had tried to investigate Lumen, Windstream and Frontier Communications in a single proceeding. The PSC said it remains concerned about reported service-quality issues including lengthy outages, deteriorating equipment, inadequate staffing and poor customer service. However, it found “the specific challenges and solutions needed to address those challenges are unique to each carrier.” The carriers weren’t sufficiently forthcoming in the combined docket, noted the PSC. “The Commission hopes that future efforts to improve service quality for Nebraskans are met with a cooperative spirit.”

AT&T and Teleport Communications may abandon certain business local exchange services in the District of Columbia, the D.C. Public Service Commission decided Monday. The companies may abandon the services Jan. 30, said the PSC order. The companies applied Oct. 9 to discontinue ALS digital trunks and prime digital trunk services because they said no business customers subscribe to them. The companies said they would continue selling other business services in D.C. and didn’t plan to abandon their competitive local exchange carrier certificates, the PSC said.

Pennsylvania will reauthorize its call-before-you-dig law. On Tuesday, the state's House voted 196-6 to pass SB-1237. Then the Senate voted 50-0 to concur with House changes. At a hearing last month, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chairman Stephen DeFrank supported reauthorizing the 811 law because of an expected influx of broadband work and other reasons (see 2409170004).

The Texas Public Utility Commission should deregulate a Brightspeed exchange in Port Aransas, Texas, recommended PUC staff on Tuesday. The company has two voice competitors in the market of fewer than 100,000 people, staff reasoned in docket 56999. Brightspeed also seeks deregulation in two other Texas exchanges (see 2408280019).

Hawaii is asking that residents become “digital detectives” and conduct internet speed tests on their PCs, through a government website, from Oct. 22 to Nov. 4, said Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke (D). The state will use the results to create a statewide map “that will help to prioritize resources and improve connectivity for underserved areas,” Luke said Tuesday. The Hawaii Department of Education and public charter middle schools will offer prizes to encourage student participation. Residents may report the results of ISP or third party speed tests, like speedtest.net, the state said.

The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in an order Wednesday denied a Communications Workers of America petition challenging two pole-attachment orders from 2022. CWA claimed in an April 29 petition that PURA decisions from 2022 on one-touch, make ready and a single visit transfer (SVT) process for double poles, plus a policy working group’s actions, “improperly mandated that Frontier and other Connecticut telecommunications companies ‘use third-party non-union contractors for bargaining unit work, without notice to or negotiation with CWA Local 1298.’” However, CWA’s petition isn’t “the proper vehicle for challenging an administrative decision,” said PURA. “Given that declaratory rulings may not be used to obtain indirectly that which is not available directly, the Authority declines to issue a declaratory ruling as to the validity of the OTMR and SVT Decisions. Even if the decisions could be appealed, added PURA, CWA failed to meet the statutory deadline to challenge them. In addition, CWA failed to show that the policy working group’s actions “constitute unlawful interference by the Authority with CWA’s contract with Frontier,” the authority said. “Contrary to CWA’s assertions, contractors were not forced upon attachers.” PURA Chair Marissa Gillett and Commissioners Jack Betkoski and David Arconti signed the order (case 24-05-11). CWA may have "no choice but to sue PURA," emailed Camilo Duran, a Yale Law School student interning with the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. The clinic represents CWA Local 1298. Mandating third-party contractors "interferes with CWA's hard-fought collective bargaining agreement with Frontier, and is a threat to high-paying, stable union jobs in Connecticut," said Duran: Claiming that the requirement "is immune from review is an affront to democratic accountability and essential workers across the state."

DOJ urged a federal court not to acquit former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza. Last month, La Schiazza asked the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois to toss bribery and racketeering charges against him after a trial ended in a hung jury (see 2409300022). “In his effort to satisfy his nearly insurmountable burden, defendant ignores, mischaracterizes, and unfairly slants the abundant incriminating evidence that would easily allow a reasonable jury to conclude that the government established the essential elements of each charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt,” DOJ wrote Monday in case 22-CR-520. It added that the court may not independently weigh trial evidence and decide the government failed to meet its burden. “The law requires the Court to view the totality of the trial evidence in the light most favorable to the government, not the defendant, draw all reasonable inferences in the government’s favor, and grant his motion only if it finds the record was so devoid of evidence that a reasonable jury could not have found defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” To show a violation of the Travel Act, the government need not “prove a corrupt state of mind, much less prove the completion of the underlying bribery offense,” DOJ added. La Schiazza was accused two years ago of authorizing monthly payments totaling $22,500 to a close ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D). Madigan then pushed through legislation that La Schiazza backed, making it easier for AT&T to terminate its costly carrier of last resort obligation. That obligation required the company to continue providing landline services to Illinois residents, according to an indictment.