Federal Trade Commission

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Whether it means taking a prominent role shaping data security for the Internet of Things, or addressing high profile breaches, the FTC has adopted an active position in policing data privacy and security. And, as data becomes increasingly digital in its form and protections, data security is of paramount importance for all types of intelligence—whether financial, medical, or otherwise sensitive.  The Commission’s emphasis on these areas has not slowed, even as the composition of the Bureau of Consumer Protection changes under a new administration.  The FTC’s actions over the past year reflect that Commission’s continued emphasis on data privacy and its recent data privacy settlements have provided companies with a trail of breadcrumbs from which they can extract lessons learned and help avoid potential FTC scrutiny.…

The Federal Communication Commission’s (the “FCC”) landmark decision last year to reclassify Internet service providers (“ISPs”) as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 implicates policy issues that extend well beyond net neutrality.  Perhaps chief among them is the treatment of customer proprietary network information (“CPNI”) by broadband access providers.  The CPNI rules, which were adopted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, were originally implemented to facilitate competition in the context of a landline telephone network, rather than address privacy concerns for broadband providers.  Yet as part of the FCC’s Open Internet Order (which is currently under legal challenge), these rules apply to broadband as well.…

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.
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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.
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Playdom, Inc., an online game company owned by Disney, and Playdom’s CEO, Howard Marks, agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges brought by the FTC that they violated COPPA by collecting, using and disclosing the personal information of children under the age of 13 without their parents’ prior, verifiable consent. The $3 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever for a COPPA violation.
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