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Legal & Privacy Brief

2026-05-29

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Show Notes - 2026-05-29

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Legal & Privacy Brief - May 29, 2026

Today: The Supreme Court threw out Terry Pitchford's Mississippi death sentence over racial discrimination in jury selection, ruling trial courts must allow defendants to challenge prosecutors' race-neutral explanations for striking Black jurors. UK financial regulators called on firms to strengthen cyber defenses against AI-enhanced threats, warning that frontier AI models increase the speed and scale of cyberattacks. Carnival confirmed hackers stole personal information from nearly 6 million customers, including passport and driver's license numbers, after ShinyHunters compromised an employee account in April.

Enforcement Actions

Carnival Data Breach

Carnival confirmed hackers stole personal information from nearly 6 million customers in an April cyberattack claimed by ShinyHunters. The threat actor compromised an employee account and accessed names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and passport numbers. The company acted swiftly to block unauthorized activity and engaged third-party security experts to strengthen security. Maine's attorney general filing indicates approximately 6 million individuals were affected.

Trump Mobile Data Leak

Trump Mobile confirmed exposing customer names, email addresses, mailing addresses, cell numbers, and order identifiers to the open internet. The company blamed the exposure on an unnamed third-party platform provider. The leak affected customers who paid $100 deposits for Trump-branded phones, which remain largely unshipped nearly a year after launch.

Litigation Updates

Pitchford v. Cain (Supreme Court)

The Supreme Court threw out Terry Pitchford's Mississippi conviction and death sentence in a 5-4 decision. Justice Kavanaugh wrote that after a prosecutor provides race-neutral reasons for a peremptory strike, defense counsel must have an opportunity to argue the asserted reasons are pretextual. The Mississippi trial court erroneously omitted this key part of the Batson v. Kentucky inquiry. The case returns to lower courts for further proceedings. Pitchford was convicted in 2006 after the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to exclude four Black potential jurors in a county with a 40% Black population, resulting in a jury with just one Black juror.

Disneyland Facial Recognition Class Action

A new class action lawsuit alleges Disney collects facial recognition data from theme park visitors without their consent. The complaint claims violation of biometric privacy laws. No settlement or jurisdictional details have been disclosed.

Circle K Data Breach Settlement

Individuals who received Circle K data breach notices may qualify for compensation through a class action settlement. Settlement terms and claim deadlines were not disclosed in available materials.

Anthem Proton Beam Treatment Settlement

Anthem agreed to pay approximately $3.6 million to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging the company improperly denied insurance coverage for proton beam radiation therapy used in cancer treatment. Settlement provides compensation to class members whose claims were denied.

Oklahoma v. Roblox

The State of Oklahoma sued Roblox, alleging the gaming platform failed to adequately protect children from sexual predators despite marketing itself as a safe environment for minors. The lawsuit claims the company's safety measures are insufficient given documented incidents of predators using the platform to target children.

Regulatory Guidance

UK Financial Services: AI Cyber Threat Response

The Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England, and HM Treasury issued a joint statement calling on UK-regulated financial services firms to address cyber risks from frontier AI models. The statement does not introduce new regulatory expectations but emphasizes that existing obligations require firms to respond to AI-enhanced threats. Frontier AI models help threat actors identify and exploit vulnerabilities more quickly, increasing the speed and scale of cyberattacks.

Emergency Docket Precedent Analysis

A citation analysis of 475 substantive Supreme Court emergency applications filed between 2000 and 2024 found that 53% were cited by at least one federal court as of October 2025. The Supreme Court itself cited 11% of these decisions in subsequent rulings, including major merits opinions. Emergency docket cases with written opinions averaged 45 citations each, compared to 10 citations for minimally reasoned orders. Total citations increased 63% between April 2023 and October 2025, indicating courts are accelerating use of emergency precedent rather than reaching equilibrium.

Privacy Developments

Data Broker Location Tracking of Military Personnel

U.S. Central Command reported receiving multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil U.S. personnel in theater. Pentagon officials confirmed enemies are using location data purchased from unregulated data brokers to target and kill U.S. troops overseas. Senator Ron Wyden stated commercial location data can be used to identify where U.S. troops congregate and their patterns of life, which adversaries exploit for missiles, drones, roadside bombs, and counterintelligence. Wyden called for treating the adtech industry as a national security threat.

Age Verification Privacy Concerns

EFF warned that online age verification schemes force users to reveal sensitive personal information to third parties simply to access the web. Once centralized, this data becomes a target for leaks, hacks, and misuse. The organization stated that age verification mandates justify government-led censorship and expanded surveillance, and that these powers are historically abused.

2026 FIFA World Cup Phishing Campaign

Chinese-speaking fraudsters built near pixel-perfect clones of FIFA's official website across more than 300 domains to steal credentials and payment details from fans seeking 2026 World Cup tickets. Group-IB designated the operation GHOST STADIUM and observed it using a phishing kit developed with Layui 2.7.6m, a Chinese open-source UI library. The phishing kit clones FIFA's login system and requests password reset parameters, enabling attackers to lock victims out of their accounts and resell legitimate tickets. Group-IB estimated potential victim count exceeding 47,400 people for premium ticket fraud alone, with losses between $71 million and $474 million for that tier. The campaign was distributed through paid Facebook advertising.

Justice Barrett Swatting Incident

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was targeted in a swatting incident on May 27. Fairfax County, Virginia police responded to a false call reporting gunshots at her home but quickly realized it was a swatting call after meeting with her security detail. The justices have had around-the-clock security since at least 2022 following the Dobbs draft opinion leak. In 2022, a California man was arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh at his home.

Policy Changes

USCIS Green Card Policy Change

The Trump administration announced foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card must now leave and apply from their home country, reversing longstanding policy. USCIS stated people who provide an "economic benefit" or "national interest" could likely stay in the U.S. while others would have to go abroad to apply. The agency described the change as returning to "the original intent of the law" and closing a "loophole." The policy has operated without such restrictions for over five decades.

DOJ Grant Terminations

The Department of Justice terminated 365 previously awarded grants in April 2025, eliminating approximately $500 million in promised funds affecting more than 550 organizations across 48 states. Terminated programs included community violence intervention, victim services, law enforcement training, juvenile justice, offender reentry, and criminal justice research. The DOJ's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal reduces public safety and justice program funding by an additional $850 million, approximately 15% below the prior year. Programs implementing the Second Chance Act lost $40 million in funding. Project Safe Neighborhoods lost training funds. An anti-terrorism program that trained more than 430,000 state and local law enforcement officers since 1996 was terminated.

California Protect Our Games Act

California's Protect Our Games Act passed out of committee. The bill would require digital game publishers who cut off support for an online game to either provide a full refund to players or offer an updated version enabling continued use independent of operator-controlled services. Publishers must notify players 60 days before cessation of services necessary for ordinary game use, including the shutdown date, services no longer provided, unavailable features, security risks, and how to continue using the game or obtain a refund. The act would not apply to completely free games and games offered solely for subscription duration. The law would apply to any game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027.

Compliance Takeaways