It has been said that we must learn from the past to profit by the present. Taking this literally in this digital age of ours, one online advertising company has found this maxim to have some serious privacy implications as evidenced by the FTC order last week banning undisclosed history sniffing practices.
FTC Enforcement
Shaking Up the Settlement Process: FTC Reconsiders Whether Companies Can Deny Wrongdoing While Settling Privacy Violation Claims
By David Munkittrick on
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently announced settlements of cases brought against Google and Facebook for alleged privacy violations. The Google settlement drew headlines for being the largest fine ever assessed for the violation of a FTC consent order ($22.5 million). But Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch’s dissents are perhaps more momentous, as they have prompted the FTC to re-examine its practice of accepting settlements in which companies deny wrongdoing.
Peek-A-Boo The FTC Sees You: A Need to Know for Members of the Kids App Eco-System
Posted on
Whether your six year old has hijacked your iPad again to rediscover the inexplicable joy of flinging birds with a finger activated slingshot or to harness her mighty math powers in the origami-paved streets of Umi City, children are tapping into the spring of entertainment and educational value offered by the mobile applications marketplace. Yet, according to a study issued last week by the Federal Trade Commission “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are DisAPPointing”, the lack of privacy disclosures in these apps may hint at deeper laden privacy pitfalls which members of the kids app ecosystem may soon have to remedy.
…
Do I really have to obtain consent from all my customers to make a change to my privacy policy?
By Kristen J. Mathews on
"Do I really have to obtain consent from all my customers to make a change to my privacy policy? No one else seems to be following that rule."
We get this question all the time. It is understandable, given that we often watch Web-based companies expand their usage of consumer data without the affirmative consent of their users. (In other words, they add a new offering to their service that expands their use or sharing of consumer data, and they default their users into the new offering.) Sometimes they back off temporarily when faced with media backlash or Congressional or regulatory scrutiny, but the pattern nonetheless persists in the long term. Sometimes we scratch our heads in wonder, since the FTC has taken the position in countless actions for over a decade that if you make a material, adverse, retroactive change to your privacy policy, you need to obtain consent from consumers to apply your new policy to the data you collected under your old policy.
Facebook Accedes to the FTC’s Poke, Settles FTC’s Charges
By Andrew Hoffman on
Facebook recently agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that Facebook violated the FTC Act. The FTC-Facebook settlement, which is still subject to final FTC approval, prohibits Facebook from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of its users’ personal information, requires Facebook to obtain users’ affirmative consent before enacting changes that override the users’ privacy preferences, and requires Facebook to prevent anyone from accessing material posted by a user more than 30 days after such user deleted his or her account. Similar to the March 2011 FTC-Google settlement, the Facebook settlement requires that Facebook enact a comprehensive privacy program and not misrepresent its compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Principles. As we previously reported, these two requirements are relatively new FTC settlement terms, which were first used in March 2011.
…
The FTC Has Your Back, Even When It’s Naked: FTC Orders P2P Program’s Default File Sharing Settings Changed
By Proskauer Rose on
FrostWire LLC (a P2P file-sharing software company) agreed to change the default privacy settings on its mobile and desktop applications and agreed to clearly disclose its applications’ content sharing options pursuant to a settlement agreement with the FTC which resulted from claims by the FTC that FrostWire’s content sharing practices violated the FTC Act.
…
FTC Fines First Mobile App Developer for COPPA Violation
By Charley Lozada on
On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that mobile application developer W3 Innovations, LLC (d/b/a Broken Thumbs Apps), has agreed to pay a fine of $50,000 in order to settle charges that it collected and disclosed personal information from children under the age of 13 without first notifying parents of information-collection policies or obtaining verifiable parental consent, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC’s COPPA Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 312). This was the first FTC case involving mobile applications, commonly known as "Apps."
FTC-Google Settlement Marks Two “Firsts” in FTC Privacy Enforcement
By Andrew Hoffman on
Google recently settled charges by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that Google’s social networking service, Buzz, violated the FTC Act. The FTC-Google settlement prohibits Google from misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains and protects the confidentiality of users’ information and from misrepresenting its compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework. In that regard, the settlement represents two important “firsts” in FTC enforcement.
…