December 29, 2011 9:22 AM | Posted by Daniel Frohling |
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has joined a chorus of lawmakers and industry groups who have expressed opposition to ICANN's January 12, 2012, roll-out of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). In a 15-page letter, sent Dec. 16, the FTC warned that rapid expansion of the number of generic top-level domain names - the part of the domain name to the right of the dot, such as ".com," ".net" and ".org" - could create a "dramatically increased opportunity for consumer fraud," and make it easier for scam artists to manipulate the system to avoid being detected by law enforcement authorities.
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December 28, 2011 12:26 PM | Posted by Michael Mallow |
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California has amended its security breach notification law to expand the notification requirements for security breaches relating to consumer personal information. Senate Bill 24, which amends California Civil Code sections 1798.29 and 1798.82, which takes effect January 1, 2012, also require businesses that suffer a data breach affecting more than 500 California residents to provide notice to the California Attorney General's office.
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December 27, 2011 11:19 AM | Posted by Steve Semerdjian |
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Calling outsourcing “one of the scourges of our economy,” Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.) has introduced a bill that would make companies that relocate call centers to locations outside of the United States ineligible for federal grant or guaranteed loan programs for five years.
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December 19, 2011 9:50 AM | Posted by Ieuan Jolly |
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December 16, 2011 11:50 AM | Posted by Tom Jirgal |
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In a case of first impression, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD) – the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum – considered social media promotions, social media endorsements, and what it means when a company advertises that Facebook users “like” it. Specifically, NAD evaluated (1) an advertiser’s offer for “free glasses” to people who “like” the advertiser’s product (which NAD termed a “like-gated” promotion), and (2) the advertiser’s statements about how many people “like” its products. NAD investigated the statements made by Coastal Contacts, Inc., after a competitor, 1-800 Contacts, filed a challenge with NAD.
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December 15, 2011 4:45 PM | Posted by Michael Black |
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On September 30, 2010, California Senate Bill 657, also known as the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 (the "Supply Chain Act" or "Act"), was signed into law. The Supply Chain Act requires "retail sellers" and "manufacturers" doing business in California that conduct over $100,000,000 in worldwide sales to disclose what efforts they have taken to eliminate slavery and human trafficking from their supply chain. The Supply Chain Act becomes effective on January 1, 2012.
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December 14, 2011 5:30 PM | Posted by Steve Semerdjian |
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The New York City Council voted unanimously December 8, 2011, to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of the Outsourcing Accountability Act. The Act amends existing law to require, among other things, that the city perform cost-benefit analyses to document cost savings for prospective outsourcing contracts, as well publicly disclose plans for intended service contracts.
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December 12, 2011 8:37 AM | Posted by Jessica Lee |
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Over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, two shopping malls in the U.S. were using “FootPath technology,” developed by British company Path Intelligence, to track shoppers’ movements by monitoring their cellphone signals. The shopping malls installed antennas at various points in the mall and posted signs telling shoppers that a survey was being conducted that anonymously tracked shoppers’ movements throughout the malls. If shoppers didn’t want to be tracked, they had to turn off their cellphones.
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December 7, 2011 9:40 AM | Posted by Seth Rose |
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The U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) fined Spirit Airlines $50,000 for violating federal aviation laws and DOT rules prohibiting deceptive advertising. DOT rules require, among other things, that government-imposed taxes and fees be clearly disclosed in the advertisement even if stated separately from the advertised fare. At issue were Twitter messages that Spirit Airlines sent, as well as billboards and posters that Spirit Airlines used.
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December 6, 2011 5:00 PM | Posted by Michael Ridgway Jones |
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On November 8, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with ScanScout, an online video ad network, that had been charged by the FTC with engaging in deceptive practices regarding ScanScout’s use of a type of tracking device called a “Flash” cookie. (A Flash cookie is a cookie that websites using Adobe’s Flash multimedia technology may store on a user’s computer.) According to the FTC complaint, ScanScout’s privacy policy instructed users that they could opt out of receiving targeted ads by modifying their browser settings to “prevent the receipt of cookies.” The FTC found this claim to be deceptive, because ScanScout in fact used Flash cookies, which are stored in a different place from ordinary cookies and cannot be removed merely by changing browser settings.
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December 5, 2011 12:00 PM | Posted by Ieuan Jolly |
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The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) has announced a new set of guidelines that significantly expands the requirements for member companies that collect data online. The Self-Regulatory Principles for Multi-Site Data establish broad and comprehensive standards governing the collection and use of data from an individual’s device, regarding internet viewing over time and across non-affiliated web sites – what DAA is calling “Multi-Site Data.” These guidelines go well beyond DAA’s existing guidelines governing the collection and use of data for online behavioral advertising (OBA). They apply to data that is collected for any and all purposes (not just OBA), with limited exceptions, and explicitly prohibit the collection of data for specific purposes related to employment, health care, credit and insurance.
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December 1, 2011 3:10 PM | Posted by Steve Semerdjian |
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Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) has reintroduced legislation designed to discourage corporations from offshoring jobs. The Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act of 2011 (H.R. 3338) allows the federal government to give contracting preferences to companies that have not offshored jobs and substantially increases penalties for companies that use illegal tax havens. Rep. McNerney previously had introduced the same legislation in June 2010, but the bill (H.R. 5622) never made it out of committee.
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