The Federal Trade Commission uncovered and stopped the misleading online marketing tactics of two different companies, it announced Monday. The FTC found that social media marketing service company Devumni allegedly sold false likes, retweets, and followers on social media. Sunday Riley Modern Skincare, a cosmetics firm, allegedly posted fake product reviews that were written by …
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The US Justice Department plans to investigate Facebook to determine whether it violated federal antitrust laws, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The investigation, reportedly begun at the urging of US Attorney General William Barr, comes as the Federal Trade Commission conducts its own investigation into whether the social media giant illegally harmed competition. While the FTC’s probe focuses on whether Facebook’s acquisitions …
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Facebook hasn’t been quiet about copying features made popular by Snapchat and adding them to Instagram and its other apps. Apparently Snap, the parent company of the Snapchat app, kept track of Facebook’s competitive moves in a dossier called “Project Voldemort.” Project Voldemort — a nod to the dark wizard and main antagonist in the Harry Potter book series — …
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YouTube Wednesday announced massive changes to how it treats kids videos, as the US Federal Trade Commission hit Google with new rules and a record $170 million penalty to settle a probe into the privacy of children’s data on giant video site. It’s the largest penalty ever levied for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. YouTube’s CEO and some …
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Google will reportedly pay between $150 million and $200 million to settle an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission into alleged violations of children’s data privacy laws on YouTube, Politico reported Friday. Last month, The Washington Post reported that Google had reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the FTC. The FTC investigation found that Google improperly collected the data of children …
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If you’re reading this, then you — or someone you know — was probably affected by the 2017 Equifax data breach that exposed personal data of 147 million people to hackers. (To check if you were part of the breach — and therefore eligible to file claims to recover expenses and losses — go to the official data breach settlement website, …
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AT&T has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in a 2014 lawsuit that accused the wireless carrier of deceiving its unlimited-data customers when it slowed their connection speeds, according to a court filing Friday. The parties requested a 90-day stay so the FTC could finalize the proposed settlement, the value of which wasn’t revealed. The FTC sued AT&T …
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YouTube will stop running targeted ads on videos aimed at kids, according to a Tuesday news report. Officials at the video sharing site are currently finalizing the plans, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The US Federal Trade Commission began investigating whether YouTube violates children’s online privacy laws following calls from consumer privacy groups and politicians. The advocates asked the FTC …
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Another antitrust investigation will be kicked off against US tech giants, according to a report, this time coming from a group of state attorneys general. Citing sources, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday the probe could be launched in September and could look into whether companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon use their power to stifle competition in the market. …
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Facebook’s plan to merge WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram could hamper any attempt to break up the social media giant, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission believes. Joseph Simmons told the Financial Times that all options are on the table as it conducts an antitrust investigation of the company, but combing the three major brands could complicate things. “If they’re …
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