Archive – 2019

EU Court of Justice Sides with Google that Right to be Forgotten Does Not Apply Globally

Report from BBC

In Brief – The decision from the EU’s Court of Justice is a victory for Google and free-speech advocates that supported it because it avoids the creation of a general obligation to scrub web searches globally. For four years, Google has been fighting an order from France’s privacy regulator (CNIL) to apply the EU principle globally because EU-based Internet users can access non-EU versions of the Google search engine. The decision indicates that Google may need to implement additional technical methods to make it more difficult for European users to access non-complying Google services.

Context – The Right to be Forgotten in Europe, whereby individuals can ask search engines to have sensitive information on the web removed from Internet search if it is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant or excessive,” has been in place since 2014.  Google has said that it has received more than 845,000 requests to remove 3.3 million web addresses from search, with about 45% of the links getting delisted in Europe. While the court ruling forestalls a potential conflict over EU laws attempting to regulate the Internet globally, other countries are contemplating a similar regime. In addition, this story of a small Italian journalism web site illustrates how it is not a concept only applied to Internet search giants and can be used to stifle media in at least some European markets.

Snap Shares Dossier of Alleged Facebook Abuses with the Federal Trade Commission

Report from Gizmodo (or Wall Street Journal [paywall])

In Brief – Snap Inc., the multimedia messaging app and competitor to Facebook, has reportedly prepared a detailed and extensive dossier of Facebook business practices over nearly a decade that it claims are abusive and unfairly exploit its dominant position in the social network market.  Titled Project Voldemort after the Harry Potter character, the information will be shared with FTC investigators gathering information from Facebook competitors as part of their investigation.

Context – Investigations targeting Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are underway globally, and asking market participants for insights into the conduct of targeted firms, often in confidential settings, is a core part of the process. While the FTC is the lead Federal investigator of Facebook (although some in-fighting with the Department of Justice is reported), the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has asked over 80 companies for their feedback, and collections of State Attorneys General also have investigations of Google and Facebook underway. The Snap material will likely find its way into all their hands, and more competitors are likely engaged in similar reviews, as are non-U.S. competition authorities.

Confident Talk of US Federal Privacy Legislation in 2020

Report from MeriTalk

In Brief – Two leading Capitol Hill advocates for Federal privacy legislation indicate that 2019 action is not happening, yet remain hopeful for bipartisan agreement in 2020.  Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tech Task Force and a sponsor of data policy legislation, and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), a House-side privacy bill sponsor, each appeared at a data privacy thought leadership conference in Washington, DC.  Reports of late-summers efforts to build agreement did not come to fruition and each dampened legislative expectations for this year given the tight congressional calendar and the lack of consensus, but both indicated confidence about action next year.

Context – With the California Consumer Privacy Act going into effect on January 1 and prospects for other state actions adding further complexity on privacy and data mandates for digital companies and others handling data, there has been new enthusiasm from business trade groups such as the BRT and Internet Association to push for consensus on federal privacy legislation that would preempt state laws. However meaningful substantive issues divide advocates and difficulties created by election year politics should not be underestimated when looking to 2020.

Philippines to Join APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules System

Report from BWorldOnline

In Brief – The Philippines has announced its intent to join the APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules System (CBPRS). The Philippines National Privacy Commission (NPC) also announced plans to create national privacy standards. This latest boost for the CBPRS follows Singapore’s action in July tapping it’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) as its accountability agent, which was seen as a move that could potentially spur more APEC countries to join, and the Philippine and Singapore privacy agencies signed an MOU to share best practices on implementation. Current APEC CBPR members include the US, Japan, Canada, Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, and Chinese Taipei.

Context – The CBPRS is an agreement between APEC member countries that is analogous to the US-EU Privacy Shield in the sense that it intends to set minimum data protection standards, and a certification mechanism, allowing for cross-border data flows between certified companies in member countries.  It is also sometimes discussed in the context of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and a helpful thumbnail side-by-side can be found here.

Japan Sets Up a Prime Minister-Level Cabinet Committee on Digital Regulation

Report from The Japan News

In Brief – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced the creation of a “headquarters” of cabinet ministers and a select number of outside experts to develop, this fall, new regulatory policies to address concerns with the operations of the largest digital businesses.  The group, which appears to be sort of senior cabinet-level working group, will be led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and will comprise about 10 ministers.  It is not clear if Japan Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kazuyuki Sugimoto, the country’s chief competition law enforcement official, will also join the headquarters or serve as an advisor.

Context – The number of major digital markets engaged in some combination of competition policy review in the context of the digital economy, or targeted reviews of one or more of the largest platforms, only grows.  Regionally, the new chair of the Korean Fair Trade Commission has already announced a focus on digital giants, and this new regulatory policy endeavor by the Japanese Government is coincident with a new data and privacy focus by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission.  

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Makes the Rounds on Capitol Hill and at White House

Story in the Washington Post

In Brief – Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in Washington, DC and did a series of meetings that included a number of Senators that are very engaged on digital policy, not shying away from meetings with critics including Josh Hawley (R-MO),  Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Mark Warner (D-VA), who reportedly was asked to host a dinner on Wednesday evening. Along with meetings on Capitol Hill, Zuckerberg also had a sit down in the White House with President Trump.

Context – While none of the largest platform have aggressively challenged the general concept of some forms of new regulation, Facebook and Zuckerberg have been most open publicly to new regulatory models, and this trip to DC coincided with a major announcement from the company regarding what they describe as an independent content moderation oversight board intended to address concerns with company policy decisions. It is also an interesting coincidence that Jeff Bezos was in DC making an announcement regarding Amazon’s carbon footprint policies at the same time.

Facebook Rolls Out Plans for a Global Content Decision Oversight Board

Report from cNet

In Brief – Nearly a year after announcing their intention to create what they describe as an independent outside content oversight board of eminent individuals to assist in the making of content moderation decisions, Facebook released specific plans and a timeline the Facebook Content Oversight Board.  The group is intended to be 40 people serving three-year terms (and up to three consecutively), with broad geographic, gender, political, social and religious diversity.  The operations of the group will be funded by a Trust that will gets its funding initially through a grant from Facebook, will operate independently of the company, will apparently accept dozens of cases from disgruntled users regarding Facebook policy decisions each year, make rulings, and Facebook will accept the rulings.

Context – Content moderation is a challenge for platforms globally, especially the giant platforms. Facebook has been looking to share the responsibility and the criticism. This is a creative idea, but whether any 40-person group can assure emotional people on emotional issues, globally, that negative decisions are balanced and fair, is an open question that probably carries pretty long odds.

9th Circuit Upholds Injunction on Access to LinkedIn Public Data

Story from Time

In Brief – In an interesting platform v. platform court case, the Ninth District U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld an injunction prohibiting LinkedIn from using targeted technical means to block a business, hiQ Labs, from using automated technology tools (web scraping bots) to copy information from the public profiles of LinkedIn users. HiQ argued that the LinkedIn efforts to block their access to otherwise public information would irreparably harm their business and amounted to tortious interference with contracts, while LinkedIn claimed that hiQ was violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act non-circumvention provisions. While the decision does not decide the case on the merits, by upholding the district court’s preliminary injunction it does move the case towards trial on the merits which may provide new insights into the right to access and analyze public information on the Internet in a manner that was applauded by some open Internet advocates.

Context – Some see this as primarily a business model competition matter. In terms of real world use of the service, here is a deeper dive on the case from the perspective of a corporate HR professional.

Facebook and Google File Submissions with Australian Treasury Department on ACCC’s Final Report

Report from The Age

Key Insight – The comment-filing phase of the Treasury Department of Australia’s 12-week public consultation in response to the final report on digital platforms of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has closed. The ACCC report focused on the impacts of social media and communications mega-platforms Facebook and Google, in particular on advertising and traditional media markets in Australia, and included 23 recommendations that will be considered by the Australian Parliament and Government.  Facebook has made their response public and it includes a mix of reactions to the various proposals, ranging from support to strong opposition, which is similar in tone to the comments submitted by Australian digital industry trade group DIGI (which includes Facebook, Google and Twitter as members). Google reportedly filed comments with the Treasury but they have not been made public.

Chinese Internet Regulator Calls for AI to Promote Positive & Healthy Ecosystem

Story from the South China Morning Post

Key Insight – The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), China’s lead regulator of online enterprises, has released draft regulations on “managing the cyberspace ecosystem” that proposes rules for the use of AI-powered algorithms for search, recommendations and other forms of content curation, in order to promote positive online material. The government bans content that undermines national security and interests, and material that is sexually suggestive, promotes extravagant lifestyles, flaunts wealth or hypes celebrity gossip and scandals. The role of the Chinese Government imposing content limitations online, the implementing policies of Chinese digital firms, and TikTok’s emerging popularity as a communication platform with U.S. users, has raised concerns that China-inspired censorship is impacting American users. The CAC proposals will be open for public consultation for a month and are expected to go into effect later in the year.

Vestager Talks Limits of Platform Competition and Interest in Digital Regulation

Report from ABC News

Key Insight – Margrethe Vestager, the EU Competition Commissioner who gained acclaim for challenging the largest US digital platforms, and who will soon begin a second five-year term in that role with an additional digital regulation portfolio, recently gave a speech to an EU lawyer association giving some insights on how she sees broad digital regulation as more important in some ways than the competition cases focused on specific digital giants. The tension between digital concerns being focused on the largest platforms and addressed through competition law-based remedies aimed at those platforms, or the problems with the digital giants being used as reasons to craft new, broad, industry-wide digital regulation, is quickly emerging as Commissioner Vestager adopts her related but distinct roles.  The speech text is just a five-minute read, gets to the point, and is well worth the time.

Hotel Industry Supports Amending CDA Section 230 for Short-term Rental Sites

Story from The Hill

Key Insight – Congressman Ed Case (D-HI) has introduced H.R. 4232, the Protecting Local Authority and Neighborhoods (PLAN) Act, legislation that would amend Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act and impose liability on short-term rental digital platforms like AirBNB for the conduct of people who list properties when sites, in the words of Rep. Case’s pres release, fail to stop rentals after receiving notice that short-term rentals are prohibited in a location. The text of the legislation will soon be available here. The bill was introduced with coordinated support from major hotel industry trade groups and included the release of a poll sponsored by the trade groups. The public affairs and lobbying efforts of the hotel industry aimed at short-term rental platforms goes back years and the bill sponsored by Rep. Case quickly drew criticism from defenders of the current digital platform liability regime.

Australian Digital Trade Group Responds to ACCC Digital Platform Inquiry Final Report

Story from the Guardian

Key Insight – DIGI, an Australian digital platform industry trade group whose members include Google, Facebook and Twitter, has filed comments with the Australian Government in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) final report on the Digital Platforms Inquiry. DIGI focused on eight of the 23 ACCC recommendations including the call for a government-imposed code of conduct on platform-circulated news, new limitations on the ability of large digital platforms to acquire smaller enterprises, and a range of privacy-related proposals. At the same time that DIGI was challenging aspects of the Digital Platform Inquiry final report, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims, in the U.S. attending a major competition law conference, made strong comments on the how the largest digital platforms would need to dramatically change their policies or will face meaningful regulation globally, including noting that he had recently met with representatives of the State Attorneys General coalition investigating Google for antitrust violations.

Uber Faces Class Action Lawsuit in California Testing Platform Worker Classification

Report from Reuters

Key Insight – As expected, labor lawyers wasted no time following passage of Gig labor worker classification bill AB 5 to file a class action lawsuit in California challenging Uber’s contention that drivers that use its platform are independent contractors. The lawyer in the case has been engaged in multiple litigation endeavors targeting digital platform used by “Gig” workers and was involved in a $20 million settlement with Uber earlier this year.  Recent court decisions on the application of arbitration clauses to ride hailing cases and the ability of drivers to attain class action status will likely by considered. Even in the context of the Dynamex decision and AB 5 there remains a test as to whether a worker is appropriately classed as a contractor as opposed to an employee, and in the context of Uber and other digital platforms, two key questions involve whether the platform is ruled to be in the same business as the worker (Is Uber a transportation business or a digital platform service business?) and the level of control that the platform has over the worker (Is the worker truly independent from the platform?).

Ride Hailing Platforms Reject Claim that Drivers are Employees Even Under California AB 5

Report from Vox

Key Insight – Following final passage of AB 5 in the California legislature, which will implement the ABC Test of the State Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision that tightened the legal test determining when a worker should be categorized a company employee rather than an independent contractor, ride hailing “Gig” labor giants Uber and Lyft have both indicated that they believe that drivers on their platform are appropriately classified contractors even under the new, tighter standards. All sides appear to see this issue ending up in court soon. As noted in a recent pro-AB 5 column penned by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, her home state of Massachusetts has a worker classification regime similar to the Dynamex test. In what might foreshadow the kind of court action to be seen in California, digital work platforms Uber and Amazon (regarding delivery personnel) are engaged in worker classification-based litigation in the Bay State.

South Caroline Court Rules Amazon Owes Sales Taxes for Third Parties Due to Retail Control

Story from The State

Key Insight – The latest in an often contentious relationship between Amazon and the State of South Carolina, Chief Judge Ralph King Anderson of the South Carolina Administrative Law Court has ruled that Amazon is required to pay uncollected sales taxes for third-party sellers since 2016.  The tax dispute reflects the fact that Amazon has had logistics centers in the state for nearly a decade, which long was key in sales tax nexus disputes. In 2017 the state sued Amazon for responsibility for uncollected third party seller-related taxes claiming that Amazon had in-state nexus and the third-party products were actually sold by Amazon. In another Amazon distribution center-based sales tax dispute, California is claiming that out-of-state sellers who had products in Amazon’s California distribution centers had nexus in the state and owe up to three years of sales taxes on their in-state sales.

BRT CEOs Renew Call for Federal Privacy Bill Preempting States

Report from CIO Dive

Key Insight – CEOs of 51 of the largest companies in America, including tech, retail and financial services, sent a letter to the bipartisan leaders of the U.S. House and Senate calling for the enactment of a comprehensive federal consumer data privacy law. Following the 2018 implementation of the EU’s General Data Protection and enactment of the landmark California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), there was speculation that 2019 would be the year when comprehensive Federal privacy legislation would finally move in the Congress, but that has not occurred. With the CCPA going into effect on January 1^st, the CEOs are reiterating their call for a federal bill, however the referenced BRT “Legislative Framework” continues to call for state preemption, a prohibition on private litigation, and some consolidation of specialized industry privacy rules, which is the case with health care and banking. Each condition is controversial with privacy advocates and has contributed to the current stalemate. The chances for near-term action are small.

AirBNB In Talks with Augusta Georgia on Hotel-Related Taxes

Story from The Augusta Chronicle

Key Insight – The city of Augusta, Georgia, home of The Masters golf tournament, is engaged in discussion with the AirBNB, the leading short-term rental platform, for the company to collect and remit taxes related to the short-term rentals that occur on the platform.  AirBNB is a digital platform that has faced tax-related legal and political challenges in markets around globe, often fomented by local traditional hotel interests, and has arranged for tax collection agreements with almost 50 U.S. states and territories (although not Georgia), a dozen countries and various cities. These platform tax collection practices are occurring at a time when states and localities are also engaged in a range of non-tax short-term rental regulatory compliance issues and a technology service industry has emerged to support governments looking to track and regulate local short-term rental hosts. 

Vestager to Lead EU Competition Authority With New Digital Role

Report from TechCrunch

Key Insight – The big news from Europe is that Margrethe Vestager, who emerged as the highest profile competition policy leader globally during her five year term as the EU Competition Commissioner, has been named to another five year term in the plan put forward by the incoming EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the first EU Competition Commissioner ever named to a second term.  Vestager will also serve as a Vice President Commissioner with a new digital economy portfolio alongside the competition role.  While the EU Competition Commission deals with far more than just digital issues, Vestager’s commitment to cases impacting the largest U.S. digital platforms has been a hallmark of her tenure, and developing new rules for the digital economy has been central to her broader political message.  Some insight into whether Vestager is more inclined to regulate giant digital platforms rather than take aggressive action to break them into smaller enterprises might be found from a “hydra” comment she made in May after Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed breaking up digital giants.

State AGs Formally Announce Investigations of Google and Facebook

Report from Forbes

Key Insight – After months of discussions, reports and rumors, two groups of State Attorneys General pooled their resources on separate investigations targeting two of the largest digital platforms, Google and Facebook.  The AG Google investigation is said to include a review of the search bias issues that were included in the FTC investigation of Google resolved in 2013 but continued in Europe and resulted in the Google Shopping decision, as well as dominance in digital advertising. The AG Facebook investigation is likely to review Facebook’s acquisition strategy and potentially novel questions regarding the competition impacts of a range of privacy and data practices.  The State Attorneys General investigations add to a non-exhaustive list of inquiries that include the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee, and competition authorities in Australia, Japan, Korea, Germany and the UK.  Do not expect anything to wrap up too quickly, as big competition cases often drag on for many years.

Mexico Continues to Explore Increased Digital Tax Collections

Report from Reuters

Key Insight – Mexico’s Finance Minister acknowledged that the government is exploring expanding the taxation of digital businesses along a variety of business models and tax tools, and is in discussions with large platforms on how the government might proceed.  Expanding tax collection related to ecommerce and digital platforms, including on the revenues of digital businesses without taxable presence in Mexico, has been under active consideration for months, including legislation introduced in July by the Chairman of the Budget Committee of the lower house of the Mexican Congress, and the negotiation of an agreement for voluntary income tax and VAT withholding by platforms like Uber and Cabify on the funds earned by Mexican drivers and delivery persons on platforms.

UNCTAD Highlights Risks and Opportunities for Inclusive Development

Release from UNCTAD

Key Insight – The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a 194-page global Digital Economy Report 2019 that makes an effort to comprehensively map world’s digital economy and gives special attention to the role of data and digital platforms.  The report highlights the leadership of U.S. and Chinese digital platforms and details challenges developing countries face in taking advantage of digital platforms to promote inclusive economic growth and trade without seeing digital opportunities shifting outside their markets, including discussions of tax, competition, labor and data localization policies.  While not yet receiving meaningful coverage in the U.S., in India it was as seen reinforcing the drive for data localization, as well gaining attention in the Middle East and Africa.

8chan Owner Testifies on Capitol Hill About User Hate Speech Policies

Report from Fortune

Key Insight – James Watkins, the owner of 8chan, a platform for user content and communications implicated in high profile instances of hate speech by perpetrators of deadly violence in the U.S. and overseas, testified under oath in a non-public session of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.  His opening statement describes 8chan as the only imageboard fully compatible with the First Amendment. He said the company complies with law enforcement requests but does not engage in content moderation besides what he called the 8chan Global Rule: “Do not post, request, or link to any content that is illegal in the United States of America and do not create boards with the purpose of posting or spreading such content.”  The legality of the business model built on very minimal content moderation based on First Amendment standards, as well as how such a site will be dealt with in non-US markets, is an interesting aspect of the content moderation debate.

Freelance Project Points to Higher Skills Dominating UK Independent Work

Story from Forbes

Key Insight – A new report from the UK-based Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE), an international think tank working to improve the understanding of the self-employment sector and its impact on the economy, raises new questions about the presumption that most digitally-enabled independent work is done by low-skilled, low-wage laborers.  The report defines the “project economy” as work conducted by highly skilled freelancers engaged in specific projects that usually last for weeks or months, in contrast with “gig economy” work that tends to involve the same task performed repeatedly for a specific client.  The CRSE analysis of the 4.8 million independent worker workforce in the UK finds the “gig economy” as far less prevalent than expected, while the most dominant segment is delivered by those in the skilled “project economy” who often earn more than the average employee.

Reports Circulate that California Digital Giants are Making Last Push to Amend Privacy Law

Report from the Los Angeles Times

Key Insight – With the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), the landmark privacy law enacted in mid-2018, set to go into effect on January 1^st, and the California state legislature entering what may be the final weeks of their 2019 session, reports have circulated of aggressive lobbying by the Internet Association and digital advertising giants like Google to clarify the law in a manner that would ease compliance. A series of largely technical amendments have moved forward in a legislative session that began in mid-August, but major changes that would expand the ability to commercialize user data are strongly opposed by privacy advocates and their supporters in the legislature. Although the technology industry initially responded to the CCPA, and the prospect of eventually overlapping state-by-state privacy laws, with calls for a Federal privacy law setting uniform national rules, legislative progress in DC has proven very difficult.

Facebook Releases Data Portability White Paper and Calls for Direction on Key Privacy Questions

Story from pymnts.com

Key Insight – Facebook has released a White Paper that expresses the company’s support for user “data portability” while raising a number of questions related to standards and conditions, in particular involving privacy concerns, that they believe government stakeholders must help them and other industry stakeholders address. Data portability, the ability of a digital service user to easily shift their data to another service provider, is a concept that has gained traction among those concerned with the power of the largest digital platforms, including Facebook, Google and Amazon, and has been raised as a potential remedy to platform dominance.  Facebook has also been participating with Google, Microsoft, and Twitter on open data portability technical standards called the Data Transfer Project.

Amazon Fined 4 Million Euros in France for Unfair Seller Contract Clauses

Report from Reuters

Key Insight – Amazon has suffered another negative decision regarding its third-party seller terms, conditions and practices, in this case being fined 4 million Euros by the Paris Commercial Court for unfair terms in its third-party seller contracts.  The French Governments has taken up complaints from sellers who access Amazon’s platforms since 2017.  Amazon responded to the Paris Court decision with a statement that most of the offending provisions have already been altered, which may be a reflection of the agreement Amazon reached with German and Austrian competition authorities on the issue of unfair third-party seller terms earlier this summer.

Catholic Bishops in Australia Add Their Voice to Critics of Social Media Giants

Story from 9 News Australia

Key Insight – The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference joined the widespread condemnation of social media communications platforms coming from societal elites in the country, releasing a harsh critique of Facebook, Google and Twitter for not being proactive and effective enough at stopping fake news and online hate among other failings. The Bishops’ condemnation of the role of social media and its leading firms follows closely that of the Australian Government and the lengthy final report on digital platforms of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released mid-summer.

California Senate Committee Moves Gig Bill AB 5 Forward to Full Senate

Report from Vox

Key Insight – The California Senate Appropriations Committee voted to send AB 5 to the full State Senate for approval.  The bill, passed by the State Assembly in May, adds structure to the California State Supreme Court’s Dynamex Decision and is seen by many as a threat to business models based on digital platforms for independent workers. Dozens of traditional professions were given exclusions in the bill moving forward, including doctors, dentists, lawyers, insurance agents, accountants, engineers, financial advisers, real estate agents, and some hairstylists.  Uber, Lyft and Doordash are reported to be threatening to spend $90 million on a state ballot referendum to overturn the decision and implementing bill and protect independent Gig worker business models.  Given the prominence of the issue in the Democratic Party Presidential primary campaign, this Labor Day article in the Des Moines Register interviewing a range of independent workers in Iowa is an interesting read.

Google Will Pay Up To $200 Million to FTC Due to Child-Related YouTube Data Practices

Story from Politico

Key Insight – It is reported to Google has agreed to pay a fine of from $150 to $200 million, and change some data and advertising practices on its YouTube video platform service, in order to resolve an investigation into policies related to child users of the video service.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation was triggered by a collection of child advocacy and privacy groups who charged YouTube with violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  Many of the groups strongly criticized the reported settlement agreement, which was approved by the FTC Commissioners on a partisan 3-2 vote, as far too lax.  The Google and Twitter digital advertising businesses, as well as some game app developers, are the subject of litigation led by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas regarding child-related data and advertising practices.