Privacy and consumer protection enforcement actions tracked from official California Attorney General sources.
Official enforcement page58
Total Actions
$671.8M
Total Fines
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by attorneys general from seven other states, filed a lawsuit to block the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. The lawsuit alleges the merger violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act by reducing competition in local TV markets, leading to higher prices, less local news, and job losses.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to block the expansion of IPEDS data collection requiring colleges to submit race-linked student data. The lawsuit argues the demand is arbitrary, capricious, and burdensome, and could enable costly partisan investigations. A multistate coalition co-led the challenge.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of state attorneys general announced they will continue their antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster after the U.S. Department of Justice settled the case. The states aim to hold Live Nation accountable for anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers, artists, and venues in the live music industry.
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) settled with Ford Motor Company requiring the company to pay a $375,703 fine and change its practices. Ford violated the CCPA by requiring consumers to complete an email verification step before they could opt-out of the sale and sharing of their personal information collected through digital properties and connected vehicle services. In addition to the fine, Ford must provide easy methods to submit opt-out requests with minimal steps, audit its tracking technologies, and ensure compliance with opt-out preference signals including Global Privacy Control.
$376K
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 21 attorneys general and charitable regulators, sent a letter to GoFundMe demanding the platform remove all plagiarized donation web pages for over 1.4 million charities, disclose information about donations, and ensure pages do not outrank official charity sites in search results. The action follows reports that GoFundMe used charities' information without consent and engaged in deceptive solicitations, violating state charitable solicitation and consumer protection laws.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opposing a proposed rule that would eliminate model card requirements for AI tools in healthcare, warning that such rollbacks could lead to biased and unsafe healthcare decisions by reducing transparency.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a second preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocking the Trump Administration's demand that states turn over personal data of SNAP applicants and recipients. The court found the USDA's proposed data protocol would allow sharing of state data with entities unrelated to federal benefits administration, violating federal law.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $2.75 million settlement with The Walt Disney Company, the largest CCPA settlement in state history, resolving allegations that Disney violated the CCPA by failing to fully honor consumers’ opt-out requests for the sale or sharing of their personal data across all devices and streaming services linked to their accounts. Disney’s opt-out methods, including in-app toggles, webforms, and Global Privacy Control implementation, had gaps that allowed continued data sale or sharing even after consumers opted out. Under the settlement, Disney must pay the civil penalty and implement comprehensive opt-out methods that fully cease all sale or sharing of consumer data upon request.
$2.8M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigative sweep targeting businesses that use surveillance pricing, which involves setting individualized prices based on consumer data. The Department of Justice is sending information request letters to companies in the retail, grocery, and hotel sectors to assess compliance with the CCPA's purpose limitation principle. This action seeks to ensure that consumers are not charged different prices without proper disclosure and that businesses adhere to privacy laws.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's subpoena for patient records from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center related to gender-affirming care. The brief argues that the subpoena violates patient privacy, infringes on states' rights to regulate medicine, and exceeds DOJ's statutory authority.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside attorneys general from New York, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, filed a motion for preliminary injunction to continue blocking the Trump Administration's unlawful freeze of $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family assistance programs and to prevent broad data requests for personally identifiable information of millions of residents. The funding freeze targets five Democratic-led states without evidence of fraud, and the data requests are part of the challenged unlawful actions. A temporary restraining order was previously granted blocking these measures.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a cease and desist letter to xAI, demanding the company immediately stop the creation and distribution of deepfake, nonconsensual intimate images and child
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigation into xAI for its Grok AI model generating nonconsensual sexual images of women and children, including child sexual abuse material. The AG expressed deep concern and zero tolerance, urging immediate action to prevent further
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, on behalf of a multistate coalition, filed a motion in U.S. District Court to enforce a preliminary injunction that blocks the Trump Administration from demanding personal and sensitive information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. The Administration has renewed its demand, threatening to withhold administrative funding from states that do not comply, which the AG argues violates the existing court order and federal law protecting the confidentiality of SNAP applicant data.
The California Privacy Protection Agency fined ROR Partners LLC $56,600 for failing to register as a data broker under the Delete Act. The Nevada-based marketing firm must pay the fine and past-due fees. This action is part of CalPrivacy's enforcement against unregistered data brokers.
$57K
CalPrivacy issued Enforcement Advisory No. 2025-01 to remind data brokers of their annual registration obligations under California's Delete Act, including disclosing all trade names and websites and registering independently rather than through a parent company. The advisory warns that failures to comply may result in administrative fines of $200 per day, plus fees and recovery costs. It also highlights the upcoming Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) launching January 1, 2026.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief to quash a U.S. DOJ administrative subpoena seeking sensitive medical records and personally identifying information of adolescent patients receiving gender-affirming care at Children's Hospital Colorado. The brief argues the subpoena violates states' rights to regulate medicine under the Tenth Amendment and misinterprets the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which would harm off-label drug use across all medical fields.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, a multistate investigation targeting four major voice service providers—Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Peerless, and Lumen—for routing suspected illegal robocalls. The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force sent warning letters demanding they stop transmitting such calls, following Phase 1 which already led to some providers being removed from the FCC's database. The AG emphasized that these companies have a heightened responsibility to block call traffic from known bad actors.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in submitting a comment letter opposing the Department of Homeland Security's expansion of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to include U.S.-born citizens. The coalition argues the expansion violates the Privacy Act of 1974, creates a massive surveillance database, increases data breach risks, and will lead to inaccurate verifications and denial of benefits.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a bipartisan coalition of 36 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress opposing a proposed provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would preempt state laws addressing AI risks. The coalition argues that states must retain authority to mitigate AI harms, particularly to children, and that state-level enforcement is critical for protecting residents from emerging threats like deepfakes and harmful AI interactions.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $1.4 million settlement with mobile gaming company Jam City, Inc. for violating the CCPA by failing to provide consumers with compliant methods to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information across its 21 mobile apps. The settlement also resolves allegations that Jam City sold or shared personal data of users aged 13 to 16 without the required affirmative opt-in consent. In addition to the civil penalty, Jam City must implement in-app opt-out methods and obtain opt-in consent for minor users' data sales and sharing.
$1.4M
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) announced the creation of a Data Broker Enforcement Strike Force to investigate privacy violations by data brokers under the CCPA and Delete Act. The strike force will focus on compliance with registration requirements and other obligations, building on previous enforcement actions to increase accountability.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $7 million settlement with Greystar Management Services LLC for using RealPage's algorithmic software to illegally align rent prices with competitors by sharing confidential pricing information, violating antitrust laws. Greystar must cease using such anticompetitive algorithms, refrain from data sharing, accept monitoring, and cooperate in the ongoing case against RealPage.
$7.0M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by Connecticut and New York Attorneys General, secured a $5.1 million multistate settlement with edtech company Illuminate Education, Inc. over a 2021 data breach that exposed sensitive personal and medical information of millions of students, including over 434,000 California students. The investigation found Illuminate failed to implement basic security measures, including failing to terminate former employee credentials, lacking suspicious activity monitoring, and unsecured backup databases, as well as making false statements in its privacy policy. Illuminate must pay $3.25 million to California, implement enhanced security practices, and notify the CA DOJ of future student data breaches.
$5.1M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an informational bulletin summarizing new responsibilities under SB 81, which expands protections for immigrants' medical information by designating immigration status as protected data under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) and restricts immigration enforcement access to non-public areas of healthcare facilities.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a $530,000 settlement with Sling TV LLC and Dish Media Sales LLC, resolving allegations that the streaming service violated the CCPA by failing to provide an easy-to-use opt-out mechanism for the sale of personal information and insufficient privacy protections for children. The settlement, subject to court approval, requires Sling TV to implement streamlined opt-out processes across all devices, stop redirecting users to cookie preferences for CCPA opt-outs, and add kid-specific profiles with default opt-out of data sales and targeted advertising. This is the first enforcement action from the DOJ's 2024 investigative sweep of streaming services.
$530K
California Attorney General Rob Bonta settled with Sling TV for $530,000 over CCPA violations. Sling TV failed to provide an easy-to-use opt-out mechanism for the sale of personal information and lacked adequate privacy protections for children's data. The settlement requires Sling TV to implement changes to ensure CCPA compliance, including improved opt-out processes and children's privacy safeguards.
$530K
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined 15 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief to limit a U.S. DOJ subpoena seeking medical records of transgender youth from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, arguing it violates patient privacy and could intimidate providers of gender-affirming care.
The California Attorney General conducted an investigation into OpenAI's recapitalization plan and secured a memorandum of understanding ensuring charitable assets are used for their intended purpose, safety is prioritized, and OpenAI remains in California. The AG will not oppose the plan and will monitor ongoing adherence to these commitments.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in submitting a comment letter opposing the U.S. Department of Education's proposal to collect extensive student data on race, admissions, and financial aid. The coalition argues the data collection is burdensome, unlikely to yield quality data, and may be misused to target lawful diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the City of El Cajon for unlawfully sharing Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data with over 100 out-of-state law enforcement agencies, violating state law that restricts such data to California public agencies. The AG is seeking a court order to halt the sharing and compel compliance with state privacy protections.
New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a multistate coalition of 21 attorneys general and Kentucky in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) challenging its illegal demand for personally identifiable information of over 40 million SNAP recipients. The coalition alleges the USDA’s requirement that states turn over SNAP recipients’ Social Security numbers, addresses, and immigration statuses violates federal and state laws prohibiting disclosure of SNAP data for non-program purposes, and that the data will be shared across federal agencies for unauthorized immigration enforcement. The coalition seeks a declaratory judgment declaring the policy illegal and a nationwide injunction preventing enforcement of the data demand.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $1.55 million settlement with health information website publisher Healthline Media LLC, resolving allegations that the company violated the CCPA and Unfair Competition Law. Violations included failing to honor consumer opt-out requests, sharing sensitive health data with third parties without required privacy protections, and using deceptive consent banners that did not disable tracking cookies. The settlement imposes injunctive terms, compliance requirements, and a civil penalty, marking the largest CCPA settlement to date.
$1.6M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced a $500,000 settlement with Tilting Point Media LLC over allegations that the company violated COPPA and the CCPA by illegally collecting and sharing children’s personal data without parental consent via its 'SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off' mobile game. The settlement requires Tilting Point to pay $500,000 in civil penalties and comply with injunctive terms including implementing neutral age screens, obtaining parental consent for children’s data collection/sharing, and maintaining an SDK governance framework. Tilting Point must also submit annual compliance reports to the California DOJ and LA City Attorney’s Office.
$500K
Tilting Point Media LLC illegally collected and shared children's personal data in its mobile app game 'SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off' without parental consent, violating COPPA and CCPA. The settlement imposes a $500,000 civil penalty and injunctive terms to ensure compliance with children's data privacy laws.
$500K
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $6.75 million settlement with software company Blackbaud over a 2020 data breach that exposed consumers' personal information including Social Security numbers, bank account details, and medical data. Blackbaud was found to have inadequate data security practices, failed to timely and accurately notify impacted individuals of the breach, and made misleading public disclosures about the breach and its pre-breach security measures. The settlement requires Blackbaud to pay penalties and implement enhanced data security and breach notification protocols.
$6.8M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement with DoorDash resolving allegations that the company violated the CCPA and CalOPPA by selling California consumers' personal information to a marketing cooperative without required notice or an opt-out mechanism. DoorDash disclosed consumers' names, addresses, and transaction histories to the cooperative, failing to disclose this practice in its privacy policy as required by CalOPPA. The settlement requires DoorDash to pay a $375,000 civil penalty and comply with injunctive terms including vendor contract reviews and annual reporting to the AG.
$375K
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $93 million settlement with Google resolving allegations that the company violated state consumer protection laws through deceptive location-privacy practices. Google was accused of falsely telling users that turning off the “Location History” setting would stop location data collection, while continuing to collect and use location data for user profiling and targeted advertising without informed consent. In addition to the monetary penalty, Google must implement several injunctive measures to increase transparency and user control over location tracking.
$93.0M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside six county district attorneys, announced a $49 million settlement with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals resolving allegations of unlawful disposal of hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected patient health information. Investigations of 16 Kaiser facilities found hundreds of hazardous and medical waste items and over 10,000 paper records containing data of more than 7,700 patients in unsecured dumpsters. The settlement requires Kaiser to pay up to $49 million in penalties and compliance costs, retain an independent auditor for five years of regular audits, and implement enhanced waste and data disposal procedures.
$49.0M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside six county district attorneys, announced a $49 million settlement with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals resolving allegations of unlawful disposal of hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected health information at Kaiser’s California facilities. Undercover inspections of 16 Kaiser facilities found hundreds of hazardous and medical waste items, plus over 10,000 paper records containing personal information of more than 7,700 patients in unsecured, publicly accessible dumpsters. The settlement requires Kaiser to pay $49 million total, implement enhanced compliance measures, and retain an independent auditor for five years to conduct regular waste and programmatic compliance audits.
$49.0M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $49 million settlement with Kaiser for illegally disposing of hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected patient information at facilities statewide. The settlement resolves allegations of violations under health privacy and environmental laws, requiring Kaiser to pay penalties, implement compliance measures, and undergo independent audits.
$49.0M
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement with Sephora, Inc. resolving allegations that the company violated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by failing to disclose it was selling consumers' personal information and failing to process opt-out requests via user-enabled Global Privacy Controls. Sephora agreed to pay $1.2 million in penalties and implement injunctive measures including updating privacy disclosures, enabling opt-out via GPC, conforming service provider agreements to CCPA, and reporting to the AG. The settlement is part of ongoing CCPA enforcement efforts, with the AG also issuing cure notices to other businesses failing to honor GPC opt-out signals.
$1.2M
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced an $8.69 million settlement with health insurer Anthem, Inc. resolving allegations that the company violated state and federal privacy laws by failing to protect patient personal data in a 2014 data breach. The breach, announced in 2015, exposed personal information of 78 million consumers nationwide, including 13.5 million Californians, due to Anthem’s inadequate information security practices. The settlement includes injunctive terms requiring Anthem to overhaul its information security program to address vulnerabilities that enabled the breach.
$8.7M
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a settlement with Glow, Inc., operator of a fertility-tracking mobile app, over privacy and security failures that risked exposing millions of users’ sensitive personal and medical information. The settlement includes a $250,000 civil penalty and injunctive terms requiring Glow to implement privacy and security design principles, obtain affirmative user consent for data sharing, and allow users to revoke consent. Glow was alleged to have failed to safeguard health information, allowed unauthorized access to user data, and maintained flawed password reset functions that could enable third-party access without consent.
$250K
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a multistate coalition of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, announced a settlement with Equifax over a 2017 data breach that exposed personal information of 147 million consumers, including 15 million Californians. The breach resulted from Equifax’s failure to apply a critical software patch and implement adequate security measures, with disclosure delayed for months after discovery. Equifax will pay $175 million in state penalties, up to $425 million in consumer restitution, and implement enhanced data security measures and ten years of free credit monitoring for affected consumers.
$175.0M
Premera Blue Cross suffered a data breach in 2014 that exposed personal and medical information of 10.5 million consumers. As part of a multistate settlement, Premera agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties and implement security improvements and a compliance program. California will receive over $1 million from the settlement.
$10.0M
Aetna Inc. settled with the California Attorney General for $935,000 over allegations that it revealed the HIV status of 1,991 Californians through a mailing error where medication information was visible through envelope windows. The settlement requires Aetna to implement improved mailing procedures and conduct annual privacy assessments. This action enforces health privacy laws and protects sensitive medical information.
$935K
Uber Technologies, Inc. settled for $148 million over a 2016 data breach that exposed 57 million users' personal information. The company was accused of covering up the breach by paying hackers and failing to notify authorities or affected drivers as required by law. The settlement includes a large penalty and mandates robust data security practices, privacy-by-design integration, and regular reporting to prevent future incidents.
$148.0M
Cottage Health System experienced two data breaches exposing medical information of over 50,000 patients due to inadequate security measures. The settlement requires a $2 million penalty and upgrades to security practices, including designating a Chief Privacy Officer.
$2.0M
Lenovo preinstalled 'Visual Discovery' software on its computers that intercepted browsing data and broke encrypted connections without user consent, compromising security and privacy. The multi-state settlement imposes a $3.5 million penalty and requires Lenovo to implement disclosure, consent, opt-out, and security compliance measures.
$3.5M
Target settled a multi-state enforcement action for a 2013 data breach that exposed payment card information of over 40 million customers due to inadequate security. The $18.5 million settlement requires Target to implement advanced security measures, and California receives over $1.4 million.
$18.5M
Wells Fargo Bank recorded consumer phone calls without providing timely notice as required by California law, violating privacy statutes. The settlement imposes a $7.616 million civil penalty, requires compliance with disclosure standards, and mandates an internal compliance program to protect consumer privacy.
$7.6M
The California Attorney General settled with Houzz Inc. for secretly recording incoming and outgoing telephone calls from March to September 2013 without notifying or obtaining consent from all parties, violating state wiretapping and eavesdropping laws. The settlement requires Houzz to pay $175,000, appoint a Chief Privacy Officer, conduct a privacy risk assessment, secure and destroy the recordings, and implement compliance measures.
$175K
Comcast disclosed personal information of approximately 75,000 customers who had paid for unlisted VOIP phone service. The settlement includes a $25 million penalty and $8 million in restitution, along with a permanent injunction requiring improved privacy practices and customer disclosures.
$25.0M
The California Attorney General reached a $28.4 million settlement with Aaron's, Inc. for installing spyware on rented computers without customer consent and for violating the Karnette Rental-Purchase Act. The spyware, called 'Detective Mode', allowed remote monitoring of keystrokes, screenshots, location, and webcam activation. Aaron's must refund $25 million to approximately 100,000 customers and pay $3.4 million in penalties, and is prohibited from using spyware.
$3.4M
The California Attorney General filed a complaint against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. for improperly disposing of patient medical records containing protected health information. The records, including diagnoses and lab results, were found discarded at a recycling facility, violating patient privacy. The action alleges breaches of the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
In 2013, the California Attorney General filed a complaint against Citibank, N.A. alleging that the bank failed to implement adequate security measures and did not properly notify customers about a data breach exposing personal and financial information. The complaint asserts violations of California's data breach notification law.
Anthem Blue Cross printed Social Security numbers on mailed letters, exposing the personal information of over 33,000 Medicare subscribers. The settlement requires the company to improve data security measures, provide employee training, and pay $150,000. This action aims to prevent future privacy violations.
$150K