Facebook parent company Meta has responded to a coordinated series of lawsuits (list of states and the complaint below) which include one filed in Federal court on behalf of 33 states and state Attorneys General, and 9 other related suits each filed in individual states in state court.

There is a groundswell of GDPR-like privacy legislation being introduced in several states, with laws to protect the privacy of online personal information and data being introduced in Washington, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

A new law introduced in New York would allow police to take your cell phone on the spot, and analyze it to determine whether you were on the phone, or texting, or reading email, in the moments leading up to the accident. Dubbed the Textalyzer – or Textalizer – the bill’s proponents say that the concept is not much different than a Breathalyzer, which police use on the spot to see whether someone is over the legal blood alcohol limit while behind the wheel.

New York teenager James Charles has done something that many people twice his age haven’t been able to achieve: established himself as a moving force to be reckoned with in his professional niche of choice. At just 16 years old, James Charles, who goes by @JCharlesBeauty, has built up an online following of over 200,000. To make it even more impressive, his niche of choice is as a makeup artist (MUA).

You may have heard that New York is banning Tiger Selfies after a spate of them on dating app Tinder. What, you may be asking yourself, is a tiger selfie (and for that matter, what is Tinder), and why would NY pass a law to ban them? We explain, and clear up some misconceptions.

Lots of people were really excited to learn about the “Watch ABC” ABC Player app, which lets you watch ABC broadcast shows – live streaming – on your iPhone or iPad, or a Windows 8 computer (no word on an ABC Player for Android yet). And it’s free! The first two markets, New York and Philadelphia, went live today. However, there is a catch. You must be a cable customer, and they enforce it by requiring you to log in with the username and password for your cable subscription.

You can sell used CDs and used DVDs, and even, if you’re really old school, used records and tapes. So why not sell used MP3s that you don’t want any more. It may seem an obvious issue that an MP3 file can be copied again and again, but one company, ReDigi Inc., takes a different view of the issue, pointing out that the legal doctrine of “first use” allows purchasers of copyrighted material (such as songs on a CD) to resell them. Capital Records disagreed with ReDigi, and last October the two companies faced off in front of District Court Judge Richard Sullivan, in joint motions to dismiss the inevitable lawsuit that had been brought by Capitol Records. Last week Judge Sullivan ruled on the case, and chalked up one for the big guys.

It’s bad enough that Facebook is exploiting the data of minors who have accounts on Facebook. Now, the newest assault on childrens’ privacy is the recent decision to allow marketers access to the data in a massive databsase that contains the private data of millions of children – k-12 students – incuding their name and address, test scores, attendance records, sometimes even their social security number, and which lists whether they have learning disabilities, and more. So far New York and Louisiana have expressed their intention to enter the data of nearly all of their students, and Massachusetts, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Delaware and Colorado have said they will enter data from “select districts”.

We all know that half the battle of getting a job interview is a killer cover letter. One student majoring in finance who is looking for an internship on Wall Street in New York has written a cover letter that has become a viral Internet sensation because of how blunt and honest it is.

We first reported that Google was aiming to provide free public wifi Internet access to the world over seven years ago, and they kicked off that goal by offering free wi-fi to Mountain View, and now they’ve announced that the area of Chelsea in New York City is the latest recipient of free Google wifi as they do their part to grow Manhattan’s Silicon Alley.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called off the New York City Marathon after a growing backlash mounted on the marathon’s Facebook page. Now he is getting new backlash from the marathon runners who either think it could have at least been called off sooner, or should just go ahead regardless. For the latter, it is only causing more growing tension from those who think the out-of-towners are being insensitive.

Uber, the popular iPhone app that allows you to schedule a private car or taxi through your mobile device, is closing the doors on its Uber NYC taxi service, just a month after opening it to beta. Citing too much ride demand for not enough taxi supply, the app makers said that they are hoping they will have better luck in the Big Apple in the coming year.

If you received a notice from one or another company with whom you do business or have done business in the past, saying that your email address has been compromised due to a data security breach at email service provider (ESP) Epsilon (due to their customers’ email lists being hacked and stolen), you’re not alone. Oh, you are so not alone. Banks, large merchants, and others, have all had their entire list of customers’ email addresses swiped and leaked due to the Epsilon data breach. Chase Bank, Citi Bank, Best Buy, Krogers – even Disney, have all been affected – as have their customers. Of course, lots of people receiving these notices will assume that they are phishing attempts (and there will undoubtedly be phishing attempts riding on the coat tails of this fiasco). Here is the complete list as we know it today – if you have received a notice saying that your email address has been compromised, please add the name of the company involved to the list here.

It seems that meeting women on Craigslist is a lot like Lays Potato Chips – betcha can’t meet just one. Meeting women for casual sex on Craigslist is so easy – so addicting – that it seems to cause all reason and logic (not to mention fidelity, honor and decency) to fly out of men’s heads. In fact, we fully expect to see Craiglist Rehab Clinics dotting the nation within the next few years. The most recent public downfall related to Craigslist cheating through Craigslist personals is that of New York Republican Representative Christopher Lee, who resigned this week after it was reported that the married Lee was trying to meet women through Craigslist.

With ever more states either passing or contemplating passing an Internet affiliate program sales tax, the two edges of that particular sword are being felt from coast-to-coast, as associates are being slashed from the lucrative affiliate programs of some of the largest Internet companies.