The Federal Trade Commission issued enforcement guidance on “native advertising” — ads that purposely are formatted to appear as noncommercial and are integrated into surrounding editorial content. The agency’s guidance took two parts: an Enforcement Policy Statement on deceptively formatted ads, and a Guide for Business on native advertising. Importantly, the FTC notes that its policy statement does not apply just to advertisers but also applies to other parties that help create the content: ad agencies, ad networks and potentially, publishers.… Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that LifeLock, Inc., has agreed to pay 100 million USD to settle contempt charges for deceptive advertising.… Continue Reading
Hunton & Williams welcomes Phyllis Marcus as counsel to the firm’s privacy and competition teams. Phyllis joins the firm from the Federal Trade Commission, where she most recently served as Chief of Staff of the Division of Advertising Practices.… Continue Reading
On July 10, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission released a Declaratory Ruling and Order that responds to several requests from industry, government and others seeking clarifications regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.… Continue Reading
The Digital Advertising Alliance recently announced that, as of September 1, 2015, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will begin to enforce the DAA Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising and the Multi-Site Data Principles in the mobile environment.… Continue Reading
On February 26, 2015, the Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center issued guidance to assist schools, school districts and vendors with understanding the primary laws regulating student privacy and how compliance with those laws may be affected by Terms of Service offered by providers of online educational services and mobile applications.… Continue Reading
On October 14, 2014, rent-to-own retailer Aaron’s, Inc. (“Aaron’s”) entered into a $28.4 million settlement with the California Office of the California Attorney General related to charges that the company permitted its franchised stores to unlawfully monitor their customers’ leased laptops.… Continue Reading
On May 27, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission announced the release of a new report recommending that Congress consider enacting legislation that would increase transparency in the data broker industry and give consumers more control over how data brokers collect and share their personal information. … Continue Reading
On May 19, 2014, the Federal Communications Commission announced that Sprint Corporation agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation stemming from allegations that the company failed to honor consumers’ requests to opt out of telemarketing calls and texts. Sprint also agreed to implement a two-year plan to help ensure future … Continue Reading
On December 10, 2013, a German data protection working group on advertising and address trading published new guidelines on the collection, processing and use of personal data for advertising purposes. … Continue Reading
On December 2, 2013, the FTC announced that it will host a series of seminars to examine the privacy implications of three new areas of technology used to track, market to and analyze consumers: mobile device tracking, predictive scoring and consumer-generated health data.… Continue Reading
On October 16, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission's new Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules come into effect. Among other revisions, business will now need to obtain "express written consent" prior to advertising or telemarketing through autodialed calls or texts or prerecorded calls to consumers' mobile numbers. Violations of the new rules may result in substantial fines and statutory damages.… Continue Reading
On September 25, 2013, Senator Jay Rockefeller expanded his investigation of the data broker industry by sending letters to twelve popular health and personal finance websites requesting information about their data collection and sharing practices. Responses are due by October 11, 2013.… Continue Reading
On September 26, 2013, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published new breach notification guidance (the “Guidance”), applicable to telecom operators, Internet service providers (“ISPs”) and other public electronic communications service (“ECS”) providers.… Continue Reading
On August 26, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approved a settlement with Facebook related to the company’s alleged misappropriation of certain Facebook members’ personal information in connection with its Sponsored Stories program.… Continue Reading
On July 26, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission announced updates to its frequently asked questions regarding the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. The updated FAQs respond to issues that have arisen as companies seek to implement the new COPPA Rule that came into effect on July 1, 2013.… Continue Reading
On June 25, 2013, the Advocate-General of the EU Court of Justice delivered his Opinion in a case against Google that questioned whether individuals have a right to have search result links about them erased. This blog entry provides further details on the case and the Advocate-General's Opinion that individuals have no such right under existing law.… Continue Reading
On May 20, 2013, the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate issued its Annual Report 2012. This blog entry provides highlights of the Report.… Continue Reading
On April 30, 2013, the regional court of Berlin enjoined Apple Sales International, which is based in Ireland, from relying on eight of its existing standard data protection clauses in contracts with customers based in Germany. The court also prohibited Apple’s future use of such clauses.… Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission has voted unanimously to reject a request from industry groups to delay the July 1, 2013 deadline for implementation of the updated Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.… Continue Reading
On April 22, 2013, an administrative court in Germany ruled in Facebook’s favor, finding that the company’s German operations must comply with Irish, not German, data protection law.… Continue Reading
On April 2, 2013, the Article 29 Working Party adopted an opinion analyzing the scope of the purpose limitation principle, including recommendations on how to strengthen the principle in the context of the proposed General Data Protection Regulation.… Continue Reading
Internet users have expressed increasing concern about efforts to track their online activities. As the online tracking methods used to target advertisements have expanded in both scope and complexity, regulators have taken notice and have begun to act in the online behavioral tracking and advertising space. In an article published in the November/December 2012 issue … Continue Reading
