Mobile cramming scheme halted by FTC
Thursday, November 30, 2023 by Richard Harris
The Federal Trade Commission has obtained orders with the four remaining individual defendants and their affiliated companies in a mobile cramming scheme that the agency says bilked consumers out of more than $100 million through bogus charges added to their mobile phone bills.
The proposed settlements with Darcy Michael Wedd and Phwoar, LLC.; Fraser Robert Thompson ...
Fake app reviews impact developers more than you think
Thursday, June 29, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Developers are well aware that a significant portion of online reviews for products and services, including those on popular platforms like Amazon, eBay, and TripAdvisor, are in fact fake. The issue of fake app reviews has become an increasingly pressing concern. These deceptive reviews have wide effects on both developers and consumers alike, significantly impacting th...
Virtual PrivacyCon 2021
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 by Freeman Lightner
WHAT:
The Federal Trade Commission will host PrivacyCon 2021 to examine the latest research and trends related to consumer privacy and data security.
Virtual PrivacyCon 2021
WHEN:
Tuesday, July 27, 2021, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET
WHERE:
The event will be held online. A link to view PrivacyCon will be posted the morning of the event to ftc.gov and the eve...
FTC cracks down on comprehensive data security for Utah company
Thursday, November 14, 2019 by Richard Harris
A Utah-based technology company has agreed to implement a comprehensive data security program to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company failed to put in place reasonable security safeguards, which allowed a hacker to access the personal information of a million consumers.
InfoTrax Systems, L.C., provides back-end operation services to multi-leve...
FTC cracks down on stalking apps
Thursday, October 24, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
The Federal Trade Commission has barred the developers of three “stalking” apps from selling apps that monitor consumers’ mobile devices unless they take certain steps to ensure the apps will only be used for legitimate purposes. The settlement resolves allegations that these apps compromised the privacy and security of the consumer devices on which th...
FTC extends comment deadline on COPPA Rule
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
The Federal Trade Commission is extending the deadline to submit comments on the effectiveness of the amendments the agency made to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) in 2013 and whether additional changes are needed. The deadline was originally October 23, 2019; it is now December 9, 2019.
The FTC announced that it would accep...
Match.com gets sued by FTC for using fake love interest ads
Thursday, September 26, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
This just in from the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission has sued online dating service Match Group, Inc. (Match), the owner of Match.com, Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, and other dating sites, alleging that the company used fake love interest advertisements to trick hundreds of thousands of consumers into purchasing paid subscriptions on Match.com.
The agency also al...
CARU refers Musical.ly to FTC
Monday, April 30, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
The Children’s Advertising Review Unit has referred The Musical.ly Inc., operator of the Musical.ly mobile application, to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), after the company said it would not comply with CARU’s recommendations regarding children’s privacy.CARU is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation. CARU monitors websites and...
How to protect IP communications from telecom fraud
Thursday, December 28, 2017 by William King
Software-based IP communications continue to grow in popularity because of the added reliability, reach and control they allow businesses to have over their telecom resources. However, as more developers continue to transfer enterprise communications from legacy telcos to cloud-based service providers, the threat of telecom fraud and cyber-attacks also rise. Accord...
Four privacy questions every developer needs to answer
Wednesday, September 13, 2017 by Morgan Reed
Over the past twelve months, the internet-connected doll My Friend Cayla went from one of the hottest toys of the holiday season to an internationally-classified "espionage device." The doll was the subject of an FBI warning, banned from sale or ownership in Germany, and eventually dropped from every major retailer in the United States. Despite the nearly universally hi...
Creating Apps for Kids What It Means to be COPPA Compliant
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 by Gai Havkin
A cute little interface and amazing content is often thought to be the right recipe for a killer app for kids. No doubt these are the main ingredients, but in order to have an app that’ll truly make it in the long run, a developer must be very thoughtful regarding the app’s monetization strategy AND genuine kid-friendliness - not only in interface and content - but also...
Find the Sweet Spot With Three Tips to Avoiding Misleading Native Ads
Saturday, July 18, 2015 by George Makkoulis
One of the most effective types of advertising today is native advertising, in which the advertisement blends in with the form and content around it. Sometimes the ads blend in so well that the reader doesn’t realize (or hardly notices) they are looking at an ad.In 2013, when discussing The Future of Native at The Native Advertising Summit in Atlanta, Patrick Albano, VP...
FTC Weighs In On its Activities in Relation to IoT
Sunday, March 1, 2015 by Richard Harris
What impact the recent FCC ruling on its regulatory control of the Internet through its net neutrality decision will have on the app development industry varies widely on who you ask. Everyone is going to have an opinion and its going to be an interesting ride.However, maybe just as impactful will be the involvement of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on...
The Application Developers Alliance Calls Out FTC Ruling As Falling Short
Thursday, December 11, 2014 by Richard Harris
The Application Developers Alliance forcefully criticized the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed agreement to end enforcement litigation against a notorious patent troll for being too weak and failing to deter future bad behavior by this troll or others. The Commission had sued MPHJ Technologies for sending deceptive patent demand letters to thousands of businesses and...
O Brother, Where Art Thou How New Laws Are Governing the Collection and Use of Geolocation Information Inside Apps
Saturday, September 20, 2014 by Adam Grant
Trying to find out where someone is located is valuable information for businesses and attorneys, but there are new laws winding their way through Congress which directly impact how this information is obtained. In 2000, George Clooney appeared in the Joel and Ethan Coen comedy titled O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Coen brothers’ movie created the story as a modern...
The Success Checklist: What mHealth Investors and Entrepreneurs Should Know
Monday, August 11, 2014 by Lisa Clark
A healthcare start-up developer has an intriguing concept for an app or a software solution. It may be an app tied to a sensor that is designed to transmit a diabetic’s blood glucose levels to her physician, or an app that has a proprietary algorithm that analyzes a heart patient’s water retention to predict congestive heart failure.The developer has partners who may ha...
New Regulations to Protect Kids Is Driving Change In the Mobile App Industry
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
The European Commission is reporting that Google has agreed to change the way it designates free apps. This is following what the Commission has said have been a large number of complaints in EU countries concerning in-app purchases in online games and in particular, inadvertent purchases by children.According to a recent EU commission announcement, “Google has dec...
From Lemonade and Lucy to COPPA and Cookies
Sunday, December 8, 2013 by Adam Grant
On July 1, 2013, the Child Online Privacy Protection Policy
(“COPPA”) dramatically altered how we think about cookies
Growing up as children in the US, our first taste of
commerce involved selling lemonade in front of our house on a sweltering summer
day, or wondering what justified the hefty price of 5 cents Lucy charged
Charlie Brown for psychiatr...
FTC to Discuss Emerging Consumer Privacy Issues in Spring 2014 Seminars
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 by Adam Grant
On Monday, December 2nd, the Federal Trade Commission announced three consumer privacy issues it plans to examine in 2014. As part of this initiative, the FTC will hold three events in 2014 that focus on mobile tracking, consumer online scoring and user-generated health data next year. The first seminar on February 19 will discuss technology that allows business to trac...
What Is The Apps Act of 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013 by Adam Grant
In January 2013, the California
Attorney General issued a report
entitled, Privacy on the Go;
Recommendations for the Mobile
Ecosystem. In the very next month,
the Federal Trade Commission
issued its own report, Mobile
Privacy Disclosures; Building Trust
Through Transparency.
Finally, Congress is talking about
the country’s concerns over privacy
and is consid...
FTC released amendments to COPPA
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 by Richard Harris
The Federal Trade Commission adopted final amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule that strengthen kids’ privacy protections and give parents greater control over the personal information that websites and online services may collect from children under 13. The FTC initiated a review in 2010 to ensure that the COPPA Rule keeps up with evolving t...
