Eagle Alpha rounds up some of the most relevant legal and compliance articles surrounding the alternative data space over the past month.
US
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children and mishandled data from users under 13, without admitting wrongdoing. The settlement includes new protections for teen users, including default two-hour limits, muted notifications and hidden likes. The case could have major implications for how social media companies collect and use data. You can access the full article here.
The U.S. House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act by 232–198, which would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying new individual stocks while allowing them to retain existing holdings. Critics argue the bill falls short because lawmakers could still sell stocks and that it does not cover the president, vice president or other branches of government. You can access the full article here.
The CFPB announced it will stop publishing unverified consumer complaint narratives and related visualizations in its Consumer Complaint Database, reducing a major source of public reputational risk for financial institutions. The Bureau said the narratives were one-sided, unverified, and could mislead the public about companies’ compliance records. You can access the full article here.
California’s privacy regulator, CalPrivacy, ordered a data broker to pay $116,490 and change its practices for failing to register on time and unlawfully requiring Californians to provide part of their Social Security number to opt out of data sales. The case is CalPrivacy’s first enforcement action against a data broker under the CCPA and its first involving both the CCPA and Delete Act. You can access the full article here.
Starting August 1, 2026, California data brokers must check the state’s DROP deletion database at least every 45 days and delete requested consumer data within 45 days, while also instructing relevant vendors and contractors to do the same. After deletion, brokers generally cannot sell or share new data about that consumer unless they opt back in. You can access the full article here.
The FTC is warning businesses that using customers’ personal data, such as browsing history, purchase behavior, income, or household information, to charge different prices could violate federal consumer protection laws if the practice is not clearly disclosed. You can access the full article here.
EU & UK
The EU AI Act introduces new transparency requirements to help people recognize when they are interacting with AI or viewing AI generated content, addressing risks such as misinformation, fraud, impersonation, and consumer deception. Certain AI-generated or manipulated images, audio, video, and public interest text must be clearly labelled and include machine readable markings. Users must also be informed when they are interacting with AI systems such as chatbots or AI agents. You can access the full article here.
UK’s FCA is simplifying transaction reporting rules to reduce costs for financial firms while still getting the data it needs to monitor markets and detect financial crime. The changes will reduce reporting fields from 65 to 52, remove some reporting requirements, including for FX derivatives, and shorten the period for correcting old reporting errors from five years to three. You can access the full article here.
China
China is expanding regulation of AI in the life sciences, covering areas such as drug development, clinical trials, medical devices, and health care. New rules focus on training data, AI ethics, algorithm governance, cybersecurity, and cross border data transfers. Companies will need to ensure AI training data has a lawful source, strengthen human oversight and model traceability, conduct ethics reviews where required, and check whether AI systems need regulatory filings. You can access the full article here.