FTC Says Data Brokers Unlawfully Tracked Protesters and US Military Personnel

The FTC is targeting data brokers that monitored people’s movements during protests and around US military installations. But signs suggest the Trump administration will be far more lenient...

Modern TVs have “unprecedented capabilities for surveillance and manipulation,” group reveals

Your television is debuting the latest, most captivating program: You. In a report titled “How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era,” the Center for Digital Democracy CDD spotlighted a massive data-driven surveillance apparatus that ensnares the public through modern...

TikTok facing fresh lawsuit in US over children’s privacy

The Federal Trade Commission FTC has announced its referred a complaint against TikTok and parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice. The investigation originally focused on Musical.ly which was acquired by ByteDance on November 10, 2017, and merged it into TikTok. The FTC started a...

FTC Fines Mental Health Startup Cerebral $7 Million for Major Privacy Violations

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC has ordered mental telehealth company Cerebral from using or disclosing personal medical data for advertising purposes. It has also been fined more than $7 million over charges that it revealed users' sensitive personal health information and other data to...

Avast Fined Millions for Selling User Browsing Data

By Deeba Ahmed Avast Hit with $16.5 Million Fine, Settles with FTC Over Deceptive Data Practices, Forced to Delete User Information This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Avast Fined Millions for Selling User Browsing Data...

FTC Slams Avast with $16.5 Million Fine for Selling Users' Browsing Data

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC has hit antivirus vendor Avast with a $16.5 million fine over charges that the firm sold users' browsing data to advertisers after claiming its products would block online tracking. In addition, the company has been banned from selling or licensing any web...

Decline in robocalls is encouraging, efforts seem to be working

The Federal Communications Commission FCC has announced that its recent actions with the Federal Trade Commission FTC against international robocalls appear to have had an effect. Robocalls are automated phone calls, often associated with scams and unwanted solicitations, which can be a nuisance ...

NSA Admits Secretly Buying Your Internet Browsing Data without Warrants

The U.S. National Security Agency NSA has admitted to buying internet browsing records from data brokers to identify the websites and apps Americans use that would otherwise require a court order, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said last week. "The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a...

FTC Bans InMarket for Selling Precise User Location Without Consent

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC is continuing to clamp down on data brokers by prohibiting InMarket Media from selling or licensing precise location data. The settlement is part of allegations that the Texas-based company did not inform or seek consent from consumers before using their...

The Sad Truth of the FTC's Location Data Privacy Settlement

The FTC forced a data broker to stop selling “sensitive location data.” But most companies can avoid such scrutiny by doing the bare minimum, exposing the lack of protections Americans truly have...

FTC Bans Outlogic (X-Mode) From Selling Sensitive Location Data

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC on Tuesday prohibited data broker Outlogic, which was previously known as X-Mode Social, from sharing or selling any sensitive location data with third-parties. The ban is part of a settlement over allegations that the company "sold precise location data that...

DOJ Slams XCast with $10 Million Fine Over Massive Illegal Robocall Operation

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Tuesday said it reached a settlement with VoIP service provider XCast over allegations that it facilitated illegal telemarketing campaigns since at least January 2018, in contravention of the Telemarketing Sales Rule TSR. In addition to prohibiting the compan...

FTC’s Voice Cloning Challenge

The Federal Trade Commission is running a competition "to foster breakthrough ideas on preventing, monitoring, and evaluating malicious voice cloning."...

AI and US Election Rules

If an AI breaks the rules for you, does that count as breaking the rules? This is the essential question being taken up by the Federal Election Commission this month, and public input is needed to curtail the potential for AI to take US campaigns even more off the rails. At issue is whether...

Former Uber CISO Appealing His Conviction

Joe Sullivan, Ubers CEO during their 2016 data breach, is appealing his conviction. Prosecutors charged Sullivan, whom Uber hired as CISO after the 2014 breach, of withholding information about the 2016 incident from the FTC even as its investigators were scrutinizing the companys data security a...

Fake reviewers face big fines

The FTC is cracking down on fake reviews. Under the new proposed rules, organisations involved in the buying, selling, and manipulation of reviews could be very much out of pocket. Every time a consumer sees a fake review, it will carry a fine of "up to $50,000" per viewing. From the FTC release:...

DNA testing company failed to protect sensitive genetic and health data, says FTC

DNA testing has long been a hot-button issue for security and privacy. Concerns about everything from law enforcement and data retention to job offers and insurance have all been examined at great length. With millions of people signing up to use these services, it was only a matter of time befor...

Microsoft to Pay $20 Million Penalty for Illegally Collecting Kids' Data on Xbox

Microsoft has agreed to pay a penalty of $20 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC charges that the company illegally collected and retained the data of children who signed up to use its Xbox video game console without their parents' knowledge or consent. "Our proposed order makes i...

Microsoft illegally collected and retained children's data, says FTC

Microsoft is counting the cost of privacy violations, with $20m in fines related to illegal data collection from childrens Xbox accounts. The Xbox manufacturer has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commision FTC, a result which promises to have other console developers looking closely a...

FTC Slams Amazon with $30.8M Fine for Privacy Violations Involving Alexa and Ring

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission FTC has fined Amazon a cumulative $30.8 million over a series of privacy lapses regarding its Alexa assistant and Ring security cameras. This comprises a $25 million penalty for breaching children's privacy laws by retaining their Alexa voice recordings for...