Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced a civil investigative demand into MediaLab.AI Inc., owner of the Kik Messenger app, over lax age assurance practices, content moderation, and child safety failures that advocates have dubbed a "predator's paradise." The action follows a July 2025 notice of violation under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act for privacy notice deficiencies and processing sensitive data — including health, biometric, and precise geolocation data — without proper consent, which the company has only partially addressed. The new investigation seeks records related to practices that may constitute unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the CTDPA and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. No fine has been imposed to date.
The Attorney General has issued a new civil investigative demand requiring MediaLab to produce comprehensive information and records related to its data processing, content moderation, and age assurance practices. No monetary penalty or injunction has been imposed yet, but the company previously received a July 2025 CTDPA notice of violation that it has only partially remedied despite repeated inquiries.
In-house teams at companies operating messaging apps, social platforms, or any service used by or marketed to minors should audit user-facing agreements and internal policies for age-related consistency: the press release flags that MediaLab marketed Kik as appropriate for users 13+ even after claiming to restrict new users to 18+, and did not update its Terms of Service or privacy notice age restrictions until 2025 — so review Terms of Service, privacy notices, and app store rating representations for alignment. Vendor and data processing agreements should be checked for clauses governing sensitive data categories (health, genetic, biometric, precise geolocation, sexual orientation) to ensure proper opt-in consent is obtained before processing under the CTDPA, and for consumer rights mechanism obligations (notice accuracy, opt-out functionality). Contracts with content moderation, age assurance, and ad-tech vendors should be reviewed for minimum safety standards, effectiveness audit rights, and cooperation obligations in response to state AG civil investigative demands. Finally, companies with outstanding notice-of-violation remediation timelines should ensure corrective commitments are documented and enforceable in vendor and compliance agreements.
Entity
MediaLab.AI Inc.
Industry
Social Media"09/08/2026"
"MediaLab.AI Inc. (“MediaLab”)"
"today announced an investigation into MediaLab.AI Inc."
"first issued a notice of violation under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) to MediaLab in July 2025"
"in violation of the CTDPA and Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act"
"the processing of sensitive data without first obtaining proper consent, including data related to race or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, health, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic data, biometric data, and precise geolocation data, among other violations"
Attorney General William Tong issued a consumer alert warning Connecticut residents about unregulated, offshore decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptocurrency exchanges, naming GMX, Gains Network, dYdX, Aevo, Drift Protocol, Vertex Protocol, and Hyperliquid. The alert highlights risks including bypassing U.S. law via VPNs, predatory leverage up to 250x, misleading synthetic asset products, and lack of KYC protections. No enforcement action or penalty was imposed; at least one Connecticut consumer reportedly lost $200,000 deposited with an unregulated DeFi exchange.
$2.0M
Attorney General Tong and a coalition of four other states and the FTC sued Zillow and Redfin after Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to shut down its multifamily rental advertising business and transfer clients to Zillow. The settlement requires the companies to restore competition, with Redfin rebuilding its apartment advertising business, and pay $2 million to the coalition.
Attorney General William Tong sent a letter to the Connecticut Insurance Department urging rejection of double-digit rate increases sought by Anthem, ConnectiCare, and UnitedHealthcare for individual and small group health insurance plans covering about 220,000 people. The letter argues the rates exceed inflationary measures and criticizes the carriers for failing to control costs and for poor claims system management, particularly ConnectiCare's transition to Molina Healthcare.
$275K
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced a $275,000 settlement with TaxAct, an online tax preparation company, over allegations that between January 2018 and December 2022, TaxAct improperly disclosed detailed customer financial information to Meta and Google through third-party tracking technologies without notifying taxpayers. The settlement requires TaxAct to pay $275,000 and implement new third-party tracking compliance measures, including a review committee, written policies, a tag monitoring system, and two independent third-party audits.
$4.0M
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and the Federal Trade Commission announced a $4 million settlement with Manchester City Nissan (Chase Nissan LLC) resolving allegations that the dealership double-charged for 'certified pre-owned' vehicles and collected unauthorized junk fees. The settlement requires payment for consumer redress, prohibits misrepresentations, mandates clear disclosure of the maximum total price, and requires express informed consent for all charges.
Attorney General Tong and a coalition of 21 attorneys general and Pennsylvania filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Transportation, FMCSA, and DHS to block demands for the personal information of 17 million CDL drivers. The lawsuits allege violations of federal privacy laws and the Administrative Procedure Act, and seek an emergency order to prevent the data transfer.