Collaborate Disseminate
The latest version of the legislation still leaves loopholes for abuses of data including reproductive health data.
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It’s not the first time Biden has used executive authorities to push for privacy policies.
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Nearly half of the scams originated on social media.
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The practice violates federal law and a 2011 order from the FTC, which alleged Twitter’s failure to safeguard user data led to two breaches.
The post Regulators slam Twitter with $150M fine over using consumer security data for advertising appeared first on CyberScoop.
The crackdown comes as lawmakers look to update children’s privacy protections.
The post FTC warns it will go after ed tech companies misusing children’s data appeared first on CyberScoop.
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The commission accused the company of covering up the hack.
The post FTC settlement requires CafePress owners to pay $500,000 to victims of 2019 data breach appeared first on CyberScoop.
The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department slapped a children’s weight loss app with a $1.5 million penalty and an order to delete data it collected on thousands of children under 13 allegedly without proper parental consent. The complaint from the FTC and DOJ alleges that Kurbo by WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) failed to properly verify parental consent for users under 13 and made it easy for hundreds of users who identified as 13 or older during the signup process to then later change their age in the app. It also alleges the app didn’t properly notify parents who signed up on their children’s behalf about the extent of the data collected by the app. Both practices, the FTC said, violate a decades-old federal children’s privacy law for users under 13 known as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). “Weight Watchers and Kurbo marketed weight management services for […]
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President Biden will urge Congress to strengthen children’s privacy protections in his State of the Union address Tuesday, following growing concerns about the potential mental health impact online platforms cause children — an issue that Congress has repeatedly hauled in tech giants to address in hearings in recent months. A fact sheet released prior to the speech grouped the initiative into four distinct calls to action: banning targeted advertising for children, prioritizing safety design standards for online platforms, stopping discriminatory algorithmic decision-making and investing at least $5 million in fiscal year 2023 toward research on social media’s effects on mental health. “The President believes not only that we should have far stronger protections for children’s data and privacy, but that the platforms and other interactive digital service providers should be required to prioritize and ensure the health, safety and well-being of children and young people above profit and revenue in […]
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Reports of online romance scams continued to grow in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and cryptocurrency payments now represent a big chunk of the money lost. Complaints about these heartbreaking swindles added up to $547 million overall last year, the agency said Thursday, up about 80 percent from the $307 million reported to the FTC in 2020. Of that total, $139 million in reported losses came from cryptocurrency transactions. In those cases, the victims often are subjected to a fancier plea for money than what typically occurs in a romance scam. “People are led to believe their new online companion is a successful investor who, before long, casually offers investment advice,” the FTC said. “These so-called investment opportunities often involve foreign exchange (forex) trading or cryptocurrency.” The spike in cryptocurrency-oriented complaints is dramatic. The 2021 numbers “are nearly five times those reported in 2020, and more than 25 […]
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Losses from fraud originating on social media skyrocketed in 2021, according to data the Federal Trade Commission released Thursday. More than 95,000 individuals reported losses totaling $770 million as a result of fraud initiated on social media. That number is up from $258 million in 2020 and just $42 million in 2017. Part of that growth has been driven by record losses to cryptocurrency scams. Investment scams made up 37% of all reported fraud losses originating on social media in 2021, according to Thursday’s report. Scammers have found a wide range of ways to dupe cryptocurrency investors, such as so-called “giveaway” scams where victims are told to send in money for a large investment return that never appears. Those scams have popped up quickly after surges in popularity of a new coin and even with focused efforts, social media platforms have struggled to stop them. The FTC in March 2021 […]
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