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.

This is about: A massive data breach has occurred following the hacking of the servers belonging to Active Network, which processes online applications for hunting and fishing licenses in Oregon, Idaho, Kentucky, and Washington state. The hacker, calling himself “Mr. High”, claims to have acquired the personally identifiable information (PII) of those who have applied online for a fishing license or a hunting license in those states. Mr. High says that the information for each applicant includes their name, address,their date of birth (DOB), their height, weight, eye color, and the last four digits of their social security number (SSN). Some records also included email addresses and phone numbers.