FTC Hires Privacy Researcher Ashkan Soltani as Chief Technologist

The FTC has hired Ashkan Soltani, a highly regarded and respected technologist and privacy researcher, as its chief technologist. The move is the latest in a string of interesting hires by the Federal Trade Commission. In 2009 the agency hired Chris Soghoian, a privacy and security researcher, as...

MyFitnessPal App Patches Privacy Vulnerability

The details of a patched vulnerability in a popular mobile fitness application have been disclosed three months after a fixed was released. The flaw could have allowed a user to fetch the personal profile of another registered app user. MyFitnessPal deployed a fix on June 26 for a privacy flaw in...

Multiple Android applications fail to properly validate SSL certificates

Overview Multiple Android applications fail to properly validate SSL certificates provided by HTTPS connections, which may allow an attacker to perform a man-in-the-middle MITM attack. Description When communicating via HTTPS, an application should validate the SSL chain to be sure that the...

Consumer Groups Urge FTC to Halt Facebook Data Collection Program

A collection of privacy and consumer groups from the United States and Europe has asked the Federal Trade Commission to force Facebook to suspend a recently installed program that mines information on sites that users’ visit around the Web in order to serve them interest-based ads. The groups say...

FTC Asking DEF CON to Help Catch Robocallers

The United States Federal Trade Commission is sick and tired of illegal robocalling, and it’s hosting a contest this year at the DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas in an attempt to do something about it. The consumer protection agency’s weariness likely stems from the more than 150,000...

Facebook Set to Let Users Edit Own Advertising Info

Facebook announced today it will soon be rolling out a new feature to give users more control when it comes to the types of advertisements they see on the site. If users are tired of getting barraged with ads for shoes, video games or discount plane tickets, they’ll not only be able to stop the...

Threatpost News Wrap, May 9, 2014

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso discuss the major news stories of the last couple of weeks, including the proposal in TLS 1.3 to drop RSA key transport, the Snapchat FTC settlement and the end of Windows XP support. And no Heartbleed talk! Download: digitalunderground153.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalve...

Health and Fitness Apps Poor at Protecting Privacy FTC Says

A recent study conducted by the Federal Trade Commission examined 12 mobile health and fitness apps and found them sending users’ personal information to 76 different third parties. Jah-Juin Ho, an attorney in the FTC’s Mobile Technology Unit shared the research yesterday during a seminar regardi...

Snapchat Settles With FTC Over Privacy and Security Concerns

Snapachat, the maker of the popular video and photo chat app, has agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the company misrepresented the supposedly ephemeral nature of the messages users send and failed to take adequate security precautions with the data it collects, leading...

With a Warning FTC Approves WhatsApp, Facebook Union

Facebook’s acquisition of messaging application WhatsApp was approved by the Federal Trade Commission late last week, but not without a stern notice from the agency, which warned that it would be keeping a watchful eye on the two companies going forward. In a letter addressed to officials at...

FTC Settles With Fandango, Credit Karma Over SSL Issues in Mobile Apps

The makers of two major mobile apps, Fandango and Credit Karma, have settled with the Federal Trade Commission after the commission charged that they deliberately misrepresented the security of their apps and failed to validate SSL certificates. The apps promised users that their data was being...

Privacy Groups Seek to Halt Facebook Acquisition of WhatsApp

The appeal of WhatsApp, the cross-platform mobile messaging app recently acquired by Facebook for a stunning $19 billion price tag, was that it kept to its promise of not collecting user information that would be converted to ad revenue. The acquisition by Facebook, however, likely changes that...

Metasploit Module Targets Old Android Vulnerability

Android devices prior to version 4.2.1 of the operating system—70 percent of the phones and tablets in circulation—have been vulnerable to a serious and simple remote code execution vulnerability in the Android browser for more than 93 weeks. Metasploit recently added an exploit module that targe...

Flashlight App Settles with FTC

The makers of a popular Android flashlight application have settled with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that they covertly tracked the locations of the “Brightest Flashlight Free” users and sold that information to advertising firms. The FTC’s charges stem primarily from the fact...

Proof-of-Concept App Released for Android Jelly Bean Security Bypass Bug

The researchers who discovered a serious vulnerability in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean that enables a malicious app to disable the security locks on a vulnerable device have published a proof-of-concept app that exploits the bug, as well as source code for the app. The vulnerability in question lies in...

Google Pays $17 Million to Settle Privacy Violations

Thirty-seven states are claiming a privacy victory against Google and will split a $17 million settlement from the search giant. Google, which generated $2.97 billion in online advertising revenue in the third quarter, was deliberately bypassing default privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser ...

Privacy Advocates File Complaint Over Jay-Z's 'MCHG' App,

Privacy advocates called out rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z this week, filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over an app he released earlier this month that many critics feel goes overboard in the amount of the information it requests from users. Citing “deceptive business practices,”...

FTC Reclaim Your Name Plan Would Regulate Big Data

Big data is big. So big in fact, Science Daily claimed in May that 90 percent of all the world’s data have been generated in the last two years. In early 2012, the New York Times’ Steve Lohr reported that the total amount of data in the entire world would double every two years from that point on...

LG Android Backup Software Vulnerable to Root Exploit

A vulnerability in backup software installed on some LG Android smartphones could enable an attacker with access to the device to gain root privileges. Sprite Software’s AndroidBackup tool is installed by OEM on a number of LG Optimus, Mach, Lollipop, and Prada devices. The backup tool, in...

ACLU Asks FTC to Investigate Carriers on Android Security

The next shoe has fallen in an effort to force wireless carriers and handset makers to provide regular security updates to Android mobile devices. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint this week with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accusing four leading carriers of deceptive...