A few years ago, I was standing in a South Korean field, knee deep in mud, incredulously asking one of my maintenance Marines to tell me again why he couldn’t fix a broken generator. We needed the generator to support training with the United States Army and South Korean military, and I was generally unaccustomed […]
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LOS ANGELES — Sandra Bullock and Ellen DeGeneres have spent the last two years in a behind-the-scenes battle with obscure internet companies that peddle beauty products with fabricated endorsements. As soon as one site is taken down, another pops up in its place. Tired of playing Whac-a-Mole, the stars went public with their fight on […]
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ImageCredit…via Claire Jiang Chelcie Gette’s mother called her early Tuesday morning to tell her she had gotten something in the mail. The two went on FaceTime and opened it together. “It was a cute little card congratulating me for my soon-to-be baby,” Ms. Gette, 27, said. There was one hiccup. “I knew I was not […]
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The popular skin care brand Sunday Riley has agreed to settle complaints filed by the Federal Trade Commission that the company posted fake reviews of its products online. The settlement, which was announced on Monday, does not provide consumers with refunds, and it does not force Sunday Riley to admit any wrongdoing: The company simply […]
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A mother can’t clean her kitchen because her toddler’s next YouTube video won’t automatically play. A Native American language instructor won’t be able to monetize her Navajo language teaching channel. Online videos will be riddled with ads that have nothing to do with your interests. That’s the supposedly ominous future that critics in the technology […]
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In a less than a week, Sutter Health, a sprawling system of 24 hospitals and 5,500 doctors, will face a court trial over accusations that it used its dominance in Northern California to stifle competition and force patients to pay higher medical bills. Sutter, the nonprofit hospital group in Sacramento, with operating revenues of $13 […]
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The Federal Trade Commission sued the company behind the dating site Match.com on Wednesday, saying it had used fake advertisements in an attempt to swindle hundreds of thousands of consumers into buying subscriptions. According to the complaint against Match Group Inc., which was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of […]
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Equifax had one job — keep its vast trove of personal financial information on millions of Americans secure. In 2017, the company failed spectacularly at that job when a hack compromised the information of more than 147 million people. This July, Equifax settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission in response to that failure […]
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A House committee investigating Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google over possible antitrust violations on Friday sent the four companies detailed requests for documents, emails and other communications. House investigators are seeking information on the big technology companies’ businesses, acquisitions and conduct in digital markets including internet search, advertising and e-commerce. The formal requests for information […]
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Can young viewers tell the difference between advertisements and product reviews on the popular YouTube channel Ryan ToysReview? The watchdog group Truth in Advertising says no. On Wednesday it filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing the channel’s administrators of deceiving children through “sponsored videos that often have the look and feel of […]
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Google on Wednesday agreed to pay a record $170 million fine and to make changes to protect children’s privacy on YouTube, as regulators said the video site had knowingly and illegally harvested personal information from youngsters and used that data to profit by targeting them with ads. The measures were part of a settlement with […]
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The Federal Trade Commission has voted to fine Google $150 million to $200 million to settle accusations that its YouTube subsidiary illegally collected personal information about children, according to three people briefed on the matter. The case could have significant repercussions for other popular platforms used by young children in the United States. The settlement […]
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The hotel charges known as resort fees are again under scrutiny — this time, from state attorneys general. Travelers loathe the mandatory — and consumer watchdogs say, confusing — fees, which vary by location and by the services they purport to cover. Some hotels charge the fees for Wi-Fi and gym access, while others may […]
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The state attorneys general in more than a dozen states are preparing to begin an antitrust investigation of the major tech companies, according to two people briefed on the discussions, increasing pressure on the firms. The bipartisan group of attorneys general has not yet issued civilian subpoenas — known as civil investigative demands — to […]
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You might think that after the Federal Trade Commission levied a $5 billion fine against Facebook for privacy violations relating to Cambridge Analytica, the agency has great power to protect our privacy on the internet. But in fact the F.T.C. lacks both the legal authority and resources to be fully effective in this area. The […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for the breakup of big tech companies like Facebook. Regulators have opened investigations into Facebook’s power in social networking. Even one of Facebook’s own founders has laid out a case for why the company needs to be split up. Now the world’s biggest social network has started […]
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Overwhelmed by requests from consumers seeking compensation related to the giant 2017 data breach at the credit bureau Equifax, the Federal Trade Commission is recommending that people accept free credit monitoring rather than cash. In a blog post published on Wednesday, the agency announced that because of the high volume of requests, the F.T.C. would […]
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Even during its public shaming, Equifax has found a way to rub it in the face of the tens of millions of people whose privacy it violated. Last week Equifax settled a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission for up to $700 million — in response to a 2017 hack that compromised the information of […]
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A prominent public interest research group is challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion privacy settlement with Facebook in court, calling it an unjustified victory for the tech giant and a bad deal for hundreds of millions of consumers who depend on its services. On Friday, the group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, filed a […]
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The Federal Trade Commission issued a $5 billion fine against Facebook on Wednesday. It’s an eye-popping number for sure, one that blows previous fines out of the water. It’s a number that makes for impressive headlines, but it is largely meaningless. Facebook posted $15 billion in revenue last quarter, at which point it announced that […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Wednesday that it was informed by the Federal Trade Commission last month that the agency had opened an antitrust investigation into the company and its business practices. The social network disclosed the investigation in its quarterly earnings announcement. While the F.T.C. was known to be looking into Facebook antitrust […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Wednesday was ordered to create new layers of oversight for its collection and handling of users’ personal data by the Federal Trade Commission, as the agency detailed a privacy settlement with the social network that signals Washington’s newfound energy in reining in powerful technology companies. As part of the agreement, […]
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In just the last month the Federal Trade Commission has brokered settlements with Facebook, Google and Equifax over data breaches and mishandling of consumer information. If you squint, it looks a bit like justice served. For its data management sins Equifax must pay $300 million to a fund for affected consumers with the potential for […]
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