2026-07-11: The FTC struck a 10-year settlement with John Deere requiring the company to provide farmers and

Speaker A: Legal and Privacy Brief for July 11, 2026 the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission struck a 10 year settlement with John Deere requiring the company to provide farmers and independent repair shops the same equipment repair resources it gives authorized dealers. A uh, major win for right repair advocates. The Supreme Court's recent Chatri decision limiting geofence warrants may extend Fourth Amendment protections to automated license plate readers used by police nationwide. Ryuk Ransomware operator pleaded guilty to deploying attacks against companies in Michigan, Oregon and Texas, with sentencing set for September and restitution exceeding $1.1 million. Here's the full breakdown of today's top legal and privacy stories. Legal and Privacy Brief July 11, 20206 Next Section Enforcement Actions FTC the Federal Trade Commission settles right to repair case against John Deere the FTC and five states reached a settlement requiring John Deere to provide farmers and independent repair providers the same equipment repair resources, including applicable software capabilities, that it currently provides to authorized Deere dealers. The agreement runs for 10 years under FTC and state supervision. The settlement follows years of complaints that John Deere acquired smaller independent repair centers to force customers into more expensive dealership repairs, withheld tools and manuals, signed meaningless memorandums of understanding with trade groups to avoid state right to repair legislation while continuing monopolistic practices. U.S. perg. Nathan Proctor called the settlement a step up from the $99 million class action settlement John Deere reached earlier, noting it protects independent mechanics from anti competitive practices in the repair marketplace. Compliance Action Companies in equipment manufacturing, agricultural technology and other sectors with repair markets should review their dealer and independent repair provider agreements to ensure compliance with right to Rep principles. Monitor enforcement activity under this settlement as a signal of FTC priorities under the current administration. Tech Dirt Riok Ransomware operator pleads guilty to computer fraud conspiracy Karen Sarebovich Varadaktidyan, a 34 year old Armenian national, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Oregon federal court to conspiracy and computer fraud charges for deploying Ryak ransomware against companies and a school between November 2019 and May 2020, prosecutors said. Varadaktidyan and co conspirators attacked a Michigan company that paid 200 bitcoin over $1.1 million at the time, a Wilsonville, Oregon company and a Texas school in February 2020. He was extradited from Ukraine in June 2025 after his arrest in Kyiv. He faces up to 15 years in prison, as much as $500,000 in fines and has agreed to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution. Sentencing is scheduled for September 22, 2026. The case is connected to ongoing prosecutions of Armenian national Levon Georgiovich Avetisyan, in custody in France, and Ukrainian nationals Oleg Nikolayevich Lulyava and Andrei Leonidovich Prakhychenko, not in custody. Compliance Action Review ransomware incident response plans and backup recovery procedures. Verify cyber insurance policies cover ransomware related business interruption and legal costs. Document all security controls and incident response protocols for potential law enforcement cooperation. Source the record Black Cat Alf v. Conspirator receives nearly six year sentence for extortion Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O Lakes, Florida, received a 70 month federal prison sentence for helping the Black Cat Alf v. Ransomware Gang extort multiple victims beginning in April 2023. Prosecutors said Martino, who worked as a ransomware negotiator for Digital Mint, was paid by Black Cat attackers to provide confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his employer's clients to enable the ransomware actors to maximize the ransoms paid by victims. Two other men connected to the same case, Ryan Goldberg, who worked for incident response firm Signia, and Kevin Martin, Digital Mint pleaded guilty to extortion charges and were given four year prison sentences in May 2026. Digital Mint has instituted new controls mandating all negotiations be conducted over cloud based platforms that can be audited and logged, with one of the company's founders personally overseeing all negotiations. Compliance Action Companies using third party ransomware negotiators or incident response firms should require written agreements prohibiting negotiators from sharing client information with threat actors. Mandate auditable communication platforms and implement oversight controls for all ransomware negotiations. Conduct background checks and insider threat assessments on negotiators with access to sensitive victim information sources. The Record Next section litigation updates $1.8 million Kalon Doc tracking Pixel's class action settlement Kalon Dock reached a $1.8 million class action settlement over allegations that the telemedicine provider secretly shared customer data with tech companies that via tracking pixels. Despite privacy promises, the settlement provides $20 payments for California users affected by the tracking pixels. The claim deadline is August 29, 2026. The lawsuit alleged that Kalon Doc used tracking technologies to intercept customers personal information and share it with major advertising companies. Compliance Action Healthcare providers and telehealth companies should audit all third party tracking pixels and analytics tools and advertising integrations for hipaa, uh, the Health Insurance Pourability and Accountability Act. Compliance Remove or reconfigure tracking technologies that transmit protected health information to third parties. Review privacy policies for accuracy regarding data sharing practices and update consent Mechanisms before August 29, 2026 Top Class Actions He Undies Class action alleges tracking technologies shared consumer data with tech giants. A new class action lawsuit alleges Meundies secretly intercepts customers personal information and shares it with major advertising companies despite promising shoppers their data would remain private. The lawsuit alleges the E commerce company used tracking technologies to collect and share consumer data with tech companies without proper disclosure or consent. Compliance Action E Commerce companies should audit website tracking technologies for compliance with California Consumer Privacy act ccpa, the California Consumer Privacy act, state privacy laws in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Montana and upcoming state privacy laws ensure privacy policies accurately disclose all data sharing practices with advertising platforms and provide opt out mechanisms where required. Top Class Actions Motorola accused of using license plate cameras to track drivers movements A new class action lawsuit a alleges Motorola Solutions violated privacy rights by operating an automated license plate recognition, ALPR and vehicle tracking system that logs individuals movements. The lawsuit comes as legal scholars and ALPR opponents say the Supreme Court's recent Chatri v. United States ruling, which found that cell phone location history searches require a warrant, could have a ripple effect on the use of automated license plate readers. Top Class actions M. Trump Seeks Supreme Court do Overs in Verdict and Birthright Citizenship Cases President Donald Trump's legal team has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its denial of his petition for review of a $5 million jury verdict and has said he will ask for a rehearing of Trump v. Barbara, in which the court struck down Trump's executive order seeking to restrict access to birthright citizenship. CNN investigated how common it is for the court to grant such requests, noting that the last time the Supreme Court entertained a request to review a decision in an argued appeal was in 1965. Constitutional law professor Michael Dorff told CNN that it is extremely rare for the court to grant reconsideration. It is also rare for the court to reconsider a decision to deny an appeal, although that has happened more recently. About a year ago, the court granted such relief in a case involving a federal anti doping law for the horse racing industry. Source skadu Sblog Next section Privacy Developments Supreme Court Ruling on geofence Warrants may Extend to License Plate cameras the Supreme Court's recent Chatri v. United States ruling, which found that cell phone location history searches require a warrant, could have a ripple effect on the use of automated license plate readers, according to legal scholars and ALPR opponents. The ruling, the first major Supreme Court Fourth Amendment case in eight years, suggests that geofence searches are protected by the Fourth Amendment. Michael Seifer, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, said the Supreme Court emphasized that the retrospective and indiscriminate nature of the location history surveillance was particularly worrisome adjectives which also apply to Alper data. The ruling also bolsters the case against Alper because the court focused on what the police had access to globally in their database. According to Cipher Flock Safety, the country's leading ALPR vendor, has between 90,000 to 100,000 cameras installed on public roadways and collects Data on about 20 billion license plates a month. Flock Safety spokesperson said the court decision addresses geofence warrants for Google location history, which is categorically different from license plate recognition technology, and that courts have repeatedly and uniformly treated ALPER differently from technologies like cell site location information and mobile geolocation. Data compliance action Law enforcement agencies should review ALPR data access policies and prepare for potential warrant requirements. Private companies operating ALPR networks should document data retention policies, access controls and law enforcement data sharing agreements. Monitor pending litigation challenging ALPR searches for guidance on Fourth Amendment compliance. The Record Europe revives law allowing Big Tech to scan for CSAM the European Parliament voted Thursday to bring back a rule giving Big Tech permission to scan users messages to hunt for child sexual abuse material, A process critics call chat control. Vote occurred the day before summer recess and was the product of an unusual legislative procedure requiring an absolute majority to kill the provision because absolute majority votes count all lawmakers who are not present as yeses. The measure passed even though more present members opposed it than supported it. The law allowing the voluntary scanning, which dates to 2021, expired in April after Parliament could not come to agreement about how to move forward amid a privacy outcry. Big Tech continued the scans even after the law lapsed, but European officials cautioned against doing so without legal protection now that the ruling has given firms like Google, Microsoft and Meta clear direction and legal cover to continue the CSAM scans until 2028. Critics say privacy in Europe is under siege. Much bigger battle is being fought over chat control Too zero, which in its most extreme form could force service providers to scan conversations and hosted content, including in end to end encrypted communications compliance action. Companies operating in Europe should review CSAM detection and reporting practices for compliance with the renewed voluntary scanning rule, document legal bases for scanning activities and prepare for potential chat control too 0 requirements that may mandate scanning of encrypted communications monitor ongoing negotiations over the permanent framework expected to continue through 2027. The Record Meta's automated moderation errors disproportionately affect Arabic language content when whistleblower Francis Hodgen leaked meta documents in 2020. Among the revelations was that the company's algorithms designed to detect terrorist content incorrectly deleted nonviolent Arabic language content 77% of the time, while failing to detect hate speech under the company's own policies in many instances. Five years later, researchers in the region report that overzealous moderation remains a problem, while while paths to remedy have all but collapsed, a 2025 report from the center for Democracy and Technology found that labeled datasets in certain languages and dialects such as Maghribai, Arabic and Kiswahili contain inconsistencies, bias and inaccuracies due to the limited hiring of annotators who actually speak the languages, as well as shifts in the languages themselves from the systemic suppression of content from Palestine to the repeated misclassification of LGBTQ content as adult or explicit material. These varied examples demonstrate the risks of overreliance on automated moderation and the need for stronger safeguards. Social media platforms and content hosts should ensure that human rights and due process considerations are integrated at all stages of the content moderation process, per The Santa Clara Principles 2. 0 only use automated processes to identify or remove content when there is sufficiently high confidence in the quality and accuracy of those processes. Provide users with clear and accessible methods of obtaining support in the event of content and account action. EFF Deep Links Next Section Policy Changes FCC general counsel calls for stronger obscenity regulation Adam Kandube, the general counsel for FCC Chair Brendan Carr, published an opinion column with the Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal calling for stronger obscenity regulation. Kandube, who previously represented Jared Taylor in an unsuccessful lawsuit against Twitter for being moderated and was a key player in the first Trump administration's effort to eliminate Section 230, argued that from the founding through most of American history, courts allowed the legislature to control pornographic material and that judicial reactions to Internet pornography broke this tradition. He frames his arguments as a patriotic call to action, referencing the Founding Fathers and says they would have supported stronger obscenity regulations and a resumption of obscenity prosecutions. Kandube is expected to move to a top level DOJ the Department of justice position soon. Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana also sent a letter to Trump's Justice Department in May arguing that the feds ending obscenity prosecution was a mistake. Adult content platforms, age verification providers and hosting services should monitor DOJ enforcement priorities for obscenity prosecutions. Review content moderation policies and geographic blocking capabilities for potential state level obscenity laws prepare for potential federal obscenity prosecutions targeting Internet pornography. Tech dirt Supreme Court Decision Undermines Independent oversight of Section 702 the Supreme Court's recent decision in Slaughter, which affirmed uh sweeping removal powers for the president, may have implications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act section 702 oversight. Trump dismissed three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board PCLOB in January 2025, leaving it with just a single Republican member and consequently without a quorum. The PCLOB oversees the Data Protection Review Court and is one of the independent bodies that the European Commission cited in its decision to approve the data privacy framework. Coupled with the Trump administration's actions and the Supreme Court's recent decision, there might be reasons for concern. Privacy advocate Max Shrems is expected to argue that this is a constitutional clash. EU treaty law demands independent supervisory authorities, but the US Constitution now prohibits them. Compliance Action Companies relying on the EUU s data privacy framework for transatlantic data transfers should monitor ongoing legal challenges to the DPF's adequacy determination, prepare alternative transfer mechanisms such as standard contractual clauses or binding corporate rules in case the European Court of Justice invalidates the DPF document. PCLOB quorum status and Data Protection Review Court operations for potential SHREMS litigation Source Law FIR AI Powered Surveillance Systems pose Chilling effects on Democracy in the near future, AI powered surveillance systems will be able to track everything we do in public and much of what we do in private, according to an analysis by security experts. These systems will combine powerful AI, public and private surveillance via, uh, real time facial recognition technology and digital tracking, mass databases and highly personalized enforcement. If deployed at scale, they will have profound chilling effects not just on personal freedoms, but democracy and social progress itself. China has been developing its surveillance infrastructure for years with over 600 million surveillance cameras increasingly powered by AI and facial recognition to enforce legal and social rules. AI surveillance is now being experimented with in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, a new report shows. The U.S. uh, Department of Homeland Security is rapidly increasing its use of AI based surveillance, including facial recognition and the monitoring of social media accounts to keep tabs on immigrants, dissidents, journalists, legal observers and protesters. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has said Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly recording and reporting compliance action. Organizations deploying facial recognition or AI powered surveillance systems should conduct privacy impact assessments and ensure compliance with state biometric privacy laws. Illinois BEPA the Biometric Information Privacy Act Texas, Washington, Arkansas, California implement data minimization and retention limits for surveillance data provide notice and consent mechanisms where required by law. Schneier on Security Next Section Compliance Takeaways Right to Repair Compliance Equipment manufacturers should review dealer agreements and independent repair provider access to tools, manuals and software to ensure compliance with the FTC's John Deere settlement framework. A 10 year enforcement period signals long term FTC scrutiny of repair market restrictions. Tracking Pixel audits due August 29 Healthcare providers and e commerce companies must audit third party tracking pixels for privacy law compliance before the Kalon Dock Settlement claim deadline of August 29, 2026. Remove or reconfigure pixels that transmit personal or protected health information to advertising platforms without proper consent. ALPR Warrant Readiness Law enforcement agencies and private ALPR network operators should prepare for potential Fourth Amendment warrant requirements following the CHATRI decision Document data retention policies, access controls and law enforcement DARE sharing agreements to demonstrate compliance with emerging location privacy standards. EU Data Transfer Risk Mitigation Companies using the EU US Data Privacy Framework should implement backup transfer mechanisms, standard contractual clauses or binding corporate rules to prepare for potential invalidation of the DPF following Privacy and Civil Liberties Board quorum loss and Supreme Court removal power expansion. Ransomware Negotiator Controls Organizations using third party ransomware negotiators must implement auditable communication platforms and and insider threat controls to prevent negotiators from sharing victim information with threat actors. The Angelo Martino case demonstrates insider collusion risk in incident response supply chains. That concludes today's legal and privacy brief from Carolina cleartech for informational purposes only, not legal advice.