Two US senators have some suspicions about smart TVs, and they’re asking the Federal Trade Commission to look into the data collection practices employed by TV manufacturers to see if the internet-connected devices are quietly sucking up information from unwitting consumers.
The federal investigation into Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal—in which prior versions of Facebook’s advertising API allowed the shady election data firm to partner with an app to harvest data on at least 87 million users without their consent—has expanded to include a multi-agency inquiry into the…
At this point when a new person joins the Trump administration as a regulator, the question isn’t if they are a corporate shill, it’s how big of one are they? In the case of Andrew Smith, the new head of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, he is truly a shill’s shill.
The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement this week with a notorious scammer who worked with telemarketers to pose as large technology firms and offer fake tech support services to the elderly.
The Federal Trade Commission has strict rules that, in its own words, make “virtually all” telemarketing robocalls illegal. But we’ve still seen the number of complaints about robocalls explode over the last few years. On Tuesday, the FTC announced it’s doing something about it by suing some kingpins who allegedly…
Ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke in March, Facebook has been scrambling to change its policies and reassure the public that it no longer recklessly shares data with third parties. But on Sunday we learned that it has quietly been giving device makers access to users data this whole time. It…
Four years ago, the Federal Trade Commission accused AT&T of throttling the speeds of unlimited data plans. On Thursday, Reuters reported AT&T finally dropped its legal challenge against that complaint—and more broadly, the FTC’s ability to protect net neutrality—and is in talks to settle with the agency.
Privacy and anti-monopoly advocacy groups launched the Freedom from Facebook campaign on Monday, demanding that the Federal Trade Commission force the social media giant to break up into four separate companies. Sensing a moment of weakness, activists hope to establish stronger privacy protections and cross-platform…
Here’s some good news for massive corporations that have violated the public trust by exposing the personal data of millions of American consumers, as if they needed it: the government’s new chief watchdog is one of their own. Andrew Smith, a lawyer who has represented dozens of firms including Facebook and Equifax,…
First lady Melania Trump presented her long-awaited “Be Best” initiative on Monday, which entails something about protecting children from social media cyberbullies and also the opioid crisis. And boy, was said presentation a doozy, laden with the kind of Hallmark card-inspired language and dramatic music that one…
Mankind, in their arrogance, once thought they had conquered their immortal enemy: The scam robocall. Unfortunately, thanks in large part to laziness by cell phone carriers, they’ve been back with a vengeance in recent years. Internet-powered robocalling systems are making it cheaper and easier than ever to launch…
When Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress last week, several lawmakers grilled him on Facebook’s failures to comply with a 2012 consent decree that required the social media company to submit routine privacy audits to the Federal Trade Commission.
The notorious Florida Man is at it again, this time allegedly placing nearly 100 million robocalls offering fake travel deals, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The nation’s biggest telecoms will offer a public demonstration of the latest technology for blocking illegal robocalls at an expo in Washington, DC, later this month.
In an amusing bit of irony, several companies in the United States are being urged by the Federal Trade Commission to remove the “Warranty Void if Removed” stickers and scrap other onerous policies that appear on their products because they are unenforceable garbage.
The Zuckerberg empire is burning from all directions at once. Yes, the man who once called his users “dumb fucks” for entrusting him to be the steward of their personal data is in the midst of a disastrous and very public reckoning. Take a moment to process this unexpected turn of events if you must.
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against the operators of MyEx.com, a website that encourages people to upload photos and information about their ex. The FTC and the state of Nevada are charging the operators for uploading explicit images of people without their consent. Revenge porn has been a…
In recent years, a number of toy makers have come under fire for developing children’s smart devices that turn out to be privacy nightmares, and a company called VTech Electronics has just settled the Federal Trade Commission’s first case involving an internet-connected toy. VTech will pay the FTC $650,000 over…
With less than a week before this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Chairman of the Federal Communications Comission Ajit Pai has decided to bail on a scheduled appearance.
You’re not the only one who has noticed an uptick in annoying robocalls seemingly coming from your same area code.
