TRON integration simplifies crypto transactions
Tuesday, January 2, 2024 by Richard Harris
TRON has announced an integration with Blockchain.com Pay. This move is set to innovate the way cryptocurrency transactions are handled for TRON’s extensive user community.
Blockchain.com Pay, aims to provide web3, gaming, and retail sectors with advanced crypto services. This integration with TRON is a significant stride toward simplifying the crypto experienc...
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...
Celebrities promoting NFTS warned by TINA
Friday, August 19, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
An increasing number of celebrities are jumping on the NFT bandwagon, showcasing their digital assets on social media for the world to see. But are they just showing off or do they have a personal stake in the NFT and/or NFT company that they aren’t properly disclosing? Ad watchdog truthinadvertising.org (TINA.org) is seeking answers.
TINA.org has sent letters ...
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 responds to COVID 19
Monday, March 23, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
The FTC is taking a variety of measures to respond to the new and challenging circumstances associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. The two main priorities, as always, are the health and safety of people, their families, and the entities and individuals who appear before us; and the continuity of our mission to protect consumers and competition. To that end, we...
Latin America loves business and finance apps Adjust study finds
Tuesday, February 25, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
Adjust global app benchmarks data for Q4 2019 reveals that Latin America has the highest average retention rate (9.36%) for Business & Finance apps after the first day a user installs the app.
This strong app loyalty is noteworthy as financial technology in the region continues to evolve and expand. Consumers continue to embrace the convenience of payment apps li...
AI comes to connected homes thanks to Veego
Friday, January 24, 2020 by Austin Harris
Veego Software announced the Veego Self-Care solution based on artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies, enabling real-time self-support in the connected home. The solution shifts costly and cumbersome subscriber-support actions from traditional customer care to the vigilant Veego AI, saving service providers vast technical support resources and expe...
5 million consumers will own PERS devices by 2024
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
New research from Parks Associates estimates more than 5 million consumers in the US will own PERS devices by 2024. Enabling Independence: Connected Solutions for seniors and Caregivers forecasts traditional and mobile PERS revenue will reach $1.1 billion in the same year.
The report Enabling Independence: Connected Solutions for Seniors and Caregivers assesses the a...
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...
New app for marathon runners
Friday, November 1, 2019 by Richard Harris
New York Road Runners in collaboration with its title sponsor, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), launched the official race app for this year’s TCS New York City Marathon. With its extensive enhancements, the award-winning app creates a best-in-class experience for runners and spectators at the world’s most technologically advanced marathon, occurring on Nove...
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 Austin Harris
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 Austin Harris
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...
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...
The intersection of AR, IoT, and Apps in the legal realm
Thursday, April 27, 2017 by Adam Grant
In 2007 the Apple gave us the iPhone and Apps became the rage. While the term “Internet for things” was first coined 1999 by Kevin Ashton (one of the founders of the original Auto-ID Center at MIT), in 2013 the Global Standards Initiative on Internet of Things defined the term as “the infrastructure of the information society.” AR, or Augmented Reality, unlike virtual r...
How Trump will affect the technology industry
Friday, January 20, 2017 by Gary A. Griffiths
To many, it seemed like we’d never make it to 2017. After a bruising presidential campaign, perhaps the longest in electoral history. But here we are, our first true, post-election year in eight years. For me, these years are always fun, with soaring hopes dashed and ill tidings avoided. Moreover, it’s during these post-election years that we quietly return to the ...
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...
Microsoft Provides Windows COPPA Support for App Advertising to Kids
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
Microsoft is releasing COPPA support in its Dev Center to help developers define how to manage ads in apps whose primary audience is children.Beginning in September, developers can indicate if their app targets children under 13 as defined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If a developer selects this option, Microsoft will disable its behavioral a...
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...
IoT meets VR: The Next Concern Over Mobile Privacy
Wednesday, April 23, 2014 by Adam Grant
In the beginning of this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it seemed as if every sponsor and vendor was introducing a product that demonstrated a deep commitment to mobile technology and its interaction with the “Internet of Things.” Clearly, 2014 appeared to be the year mobile technology would move from a consumer’s interaction only with th...
App Law and Which Way I Ought To Go From Here
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 by Adam Grant
On March 21, the FTC issued a press release that caused me
to reflect on a certain piece of famous literature I read as a child. As I read
the press release, I thought about Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic, Alice in Wonderland, and how it could
provide guidance to mobile app developer’s when considering how the law
regulates a child’s use of an app. Lewis
wrote t...
Should Mobile App Developers Create Analytics to Track the NSA
Monday, March 3, 2014 by Adam Grant
Before you read on, do not think that this article is
political in nature or advocates anything remotely approaching what the title
suggests. Contrary to the “hook” contained in the title, the purpose of the
article is to educate Mobile App Developers on what is reportedly done to the
information obtained by the apps they develop.
During this past year, the news ...
The Price of FREE Apps for Kids: The App Developers Quandary
Tuesday, February 11, 2014 by Eldad Ben Tora
According to Flurry, a
service which continuously monitors mobile applications, the percentage of "free
apps” rose to 90% in 2013. This indicates that nine out
of ten app developers realized that they were either unable or unwilling to ask
for compensation for the product they laboriously developed up front.
When the clear standard cost for
apps is fre...
Can The FTC Ruling Causing Apple to Refund Consumers Affect My App Developer Revenue
Thursday, January 16, 2014 by Richard Harris
The FTC and Apple have reached a settlement to award consumers (parents of small children mostly) a total of $32.5 million dollars in refunds from in-app purchases and app downloads that were charged to their iTunes accounts without their consent.
FTC Commissioner Edith Ramirez said that Apple failed to notify parents that once they enter their Apple passwo...
FTC Questions Just How Much Light Flashlight App Sheds on Amount of Information Obtained from Users
Monday, December 9, 2013 by Adam Grant
On Friday, December 5, 2013, the FTC announced it settled charges against Goldenshores Technologies, LLC, the company behind the “Brightest Flashlight Free” App. According to the release, the app has been downloaded tens of millions of times by users of the Android operating system. The FTC claimed the company’s privacy policy failed to tell users the app collected th...
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...
ADM Weekly News Roundup For December 7th, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013 by Richard Harris
From the Editors DeskThe December issue is here and we invite you to check it out! There are several editorials in this issue geared towards our end of the year thoughts, and need to know info to help you launch into 2014 wtih a bang! Speaking of, we are gearing up for our first event coming in February; Apps World North America in San Francisco and it is look...
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...
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