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    Jan. 28, 2026

Enforcement Lessons From Disney and Four Other FTC Children’s Privacy Actions

Today, on Data Privacy Day, the FTC is hosting a workshop regarding age verification, which comes on the heels of the agency’s $10‑million settlement with Disney over Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act violations. The Disney settlement includes a novel provision incentivizing the use of age verification and follows four other fall 2025 children’s privacy actions. Strikingly, each of the five FTC actions targeted a different platform category, arcing across YouTube videos, toys, mobile messaging apps, chatbot companions and pornography providers. This article examines lessons and compliance implications around children’s privacy concerns from FTC enforcement focused on age gating, parental consent and targeting advertising, with commentary from children’s privacy leaders at InfoLawGroup, Perkins Coie, Pixalate and SuperAwesome. See “Illuminate Settlements Signal Regulator Focus on Children’s Data” (Dec. 17, 2025).

What International Companies Should Do to Comply With the E.U. Cyber Resilience Act

The European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) marks one of the most sweeping global cybersecurity regulations for digital products, imposing secure‑by‑design requirements and ongoing security obligations. Its broad scope captures virtually any software or hardware that connects to a network, and its penalties and regulatory enforcement powers are steep, making the CRA a material operational and financial risk for any company placing connected products in the E.U. “Important” and “critical” products face even tighter controls. With obligations phasing in from June 2026 to December 2027, and mandatory vulnerability reporting beginning September 11, 2026, companies must begin preparations now. In this guest article, Akin senior counsel Rita Heimes and Jenny Arlington outline the CRA’s core requirements and the five priority steps international businesses should take to remain compliant and operational in the E.U. See our two-part series on cybersecurity obligations in the E.U.’s Digital Laws: “AI Act, CRA and NIS2” (Sep. 4, 2024), and “Data Act, DORA and Compliance Steps” (Sep. 11, 2024).

AlixPartners Survey Demonstrates the Need for Proactive and Integrated Compliance

In an AlixPartners survey (Survey) of 1,000 legal and compliance leaders around the world, over 60% of respondents said their organizations are inadequately prepared to manage a range of risks – from a surge in financial crime and corporate litigation to AI vulnerabilities and emerging geopolitical and regulatory hurdles. In this guest article, Susan Markel and Lisa Osofsky of AlixPartners draw on the findings in the Survey and take a closer look at the critical risk areas facing global businesses – including those from AI and regulatory enforcement – as well as high-level best practices for managing them effectively. See “Benchmarking AI Governance Practices and Challenges” (May 7, 2025).

Wilson Sonsini Welcomes Tech and National Security Expert to Launch Defense Tech Industry Group

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has welcomed Michael McGinley to the firm as senior of counsel in Washington, D.C. His arrival marks the launch of the firm’s new defense tech industry group. He most recently served as an enterprise account executive for Google Public Sector’s national defense business. For insights from Wilson Sonsini, see “Illuminate Settlements Signal Regulator Focus on Children’s Data” (Dec. 17, 2025); and “Navigating Three New State Laws That Require Apple and Google App Stores to Check All Users’ Ages” (Aug. 13, 2025).

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Women to Watch: Contributions, Achievements and Observations of Outstanding Female Professionals

To mark International Women’s Day, women editors and reporters at ION Analytics interviewed outstanding women in the industries and jurisdictions we cover. In this part, Law Report Group editors Jill Abitbol, Robin L. Barton and Megan Zwiebel profile notable women in data privacy, cybersecurity, private funds and anti-corruption law, including Anne-Gabrielle Haie, Jessica Lee, Micaela McMurrough, Laura Perkins, Amanda Raad, Madelyn Calabrese, Ranah Esmaili and Genna Garver. Enjoy reading their inspiring remarks here.