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FTC doles out $50,000 to winners of Robocall Challenge
- The Federal Trade Commission recently wrapped up a contest designed to find an effective solution to combat robocalls – spammy automated phone calls that deliver a pre-recorded message to unlucky recipients. The annoying messages account for roughly 200,000 complaints each…
FTC nails 29 spammers who sent over 180m texts promising freebies
- The US Federal Trade Commission has charged 29 individuals who allegedly sent millions of spam text messages to phone users promising "free" prizes. The defendants are reportedly responsible for sending more than 180 million unwanted messages to random phone numbers,…
Facebook to buy Microsoft's advertising network, report affirms
- Confirming December's rumors of a Facebook-Microsoft advertising deal, a report by Ad Age indicates Facebook may buy Microsoft's Atlas ad network as soon as next week. An impending deal would not be surprising; after all, Facebook and Microsoft have been cozy…
FTC offers $50,000 prize to stop illegal robocalls
- The Federal Trade Commission is calling upon the private sector to solve a modern-day plight: reliably detecting and eliminating robocalls to both landlines and cell phones. The FTC is offering a cool $50,000 prize to the person or company who…
Major scamware creator fined $163 million by U.S. authorities
- Software scam artist Kristy Ross has been fined $163 million by U.S. authorities for running an unscrupulous "scareware" operation. The Federal Trade Commission had been following Ross since 2008 in hopes of closing in on her dealings and the judgment includes…
Regulators crack down on telemarketing scareware scammers
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Regulators from five countries including the US FTC have announced a crackdown on six scareware operations that imitated tech support agents to trick unwitting users into paying for the removal of fake malware. The scammers were mostly based in India and targeted...
FTC settles with computer rental stores who spied on users
- Seven computer rental companies and a software developer have settled federal charges that they spied on customers. Developed by the now-defunct DesignerWare LLC, PC Rental Agent was installed on as many as 420,000 computers by more than 1,617 rent-to-own stores…
10-15% of online reviews will be paid for by companies in 2013
- Research firm Gartner reports that corporate spending on positive social media ratings and reviews will continue to swell by 2014. The expected result is a 10 to 15 percent increase in paid-for ratings and reviews, making the web an increasingly…
Facebook re-writes iOS app, revises Messages, cleared for Instagram deal
- Facebook has been a hive of activity this week. The social network’s Messages app has been updated and now looks more like an email inbox, iOS users have been treated to a completely re-written Facebook app, and the FTC has…
Google job listing reveals creation of privacy red team
- Google is preparing to build a privacy “red team” that will work to investigate and solve privacy concerns moving forward. The new division comes just a week after the search giant was hit with a record-setting $22.6 million fine by…
Google hit with record-setting $22.5 million fine over FTC violation
- The Federal Trade Commission is making an example out of Google by hitting them with the largest fine ever for an FTC violation. The search giant has agreed to pay a $22.5 million civil penalty related to accusations that they…
Google faces $22 million fine over Safari cookie debacle
- Google is close to reaching a settlement deal with the FTC over concerns raised back in February that the search giant was actively circumventing the privacy settings of desktop and iOS Safari users. Back then an investigation by the Wall…
UK's Office of Fair Trading to investigate $1bn Instagram deal
- The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate Facebook's April announcement of its planned $1 billion purchase of Instagram due to concerns that the social networking giant could unfairly exert control over the competition by restricting the uploading…
HP's Seoul office raided in price fixing investigation
- HP's Seoul office was raided by South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) last Friday as part of a price fixing investigation, according to Korea Times. The agency reportedly swiped documents and computer records along with questioning employees, though full details…
FTC fines RockYou $250,000 for exposing identities of 32 million gamers
- Online social gaming outfit, RockYou, has settled with the FTC after an embarrassing security snafu in 2009 allowed hackers to reveal the accounts and passwords of more than 32 million users. The company has been fined $250,000 and is required…
FTC praises 'Do Not Track' initiatives, refreshes privacy framework
- In a new report published by the FTC (pdf), the commission attempts to lay a new framework to protect the privacy of citizens and refreshes its own views on how to accomplish those goals. Some of the ideas outlined include Do…
Lax photo permissions on iOS, Android may lead to FTC investigation
- Just last week, the New York Times discovered that iOS apps can silently access and copy photos from a user's photo library to a remote server with little to stand in the way. As it turns out though, it's not…
Anonymous hacks FTC website OnGuardOnline.gov
- Anonymous continues to target government and film industry websites as part of the so-called operation MegaUpload, in protest of the file sharing service's recent shutdown. As it stands right now top MegaUpload executives, including its controversial founder Kim Dotcom, stand…
ICANN selling custom top-level domains for $185,000
- In the wake of .xxx domains becoming reality, ICANN, the entity which governs Internet domain names, has begun accepting applicants today for custom top-level domains. Instead of being restricted to .com, .net, .info and the like, companies now have the…
Facebook reaches agreement in privacy case with the FTC
- Facebook has settled its ongoing privacy dispute with the Federal Trade Commission after being charged with failing to keep promises it made regarding the privacy of its users, and for deceiving them. Resolving the dispute and agreeing acceptable terms is…
Facebook complaints from privacy groups taken to FTC
- Ten privacy groups have written to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission asking that Facebook be assessed for its use of super cookies, used by the social networking giant to track users across the internet.
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