Tag Archives: FederalTradeCommission
FTC drags D-Link into court for lax router and camera security
AT&T will finally refund $88 million in unauthorized charges
Why celebrities get away with stealth shilling on Instagram
FTC issues warning to apps covertly monitoring TV broadcasts
Meet the FTC’s new chief technologist
FTC will not challenge Google’s $1 billion Waze acquisition
When Google acquired Waze back in June, the Federal Trade Commission decided to investigate the deal to see if it violated antitrust regulations, and today, it looks like Mountain View is in the clear. According to Bloomberg's sources (unnamed people "familiar with the matter," naturally), the FTC will not interfere with the acquisition, as the $1 billion purchase isn't seen as an aggressive act designed to stifle competition. The review's outcome is indeed welcome news at Google, as the company can now proceed with integrating Waze's crowd-sourced traffic and mapping capabilities with its own services. By this point, antitrust challenges must be awfully familiar to the folks at Google, but we're pretty sure that winning them never gets old.
Via: The Verge
Source: Bloomberg
The FTC wants your thoughts on proposed patent troll investigation
Here's a question. Forced to decide, would you rather have a patent troll breathing down your neck, or cuddle up with an entity just as ghoulish that's living under a bridge? The FTC wants your thoughts on the matter, even if its description isn't quite so... colorful. The agency is putting out a call for public commentary on its proposed investigation of patent assertion entities, which have come under federal scrutiny as of late. Key to the proposal, the FTC would request information from 25 patent trolls to learn non-public information such as their corporate structure, patent holdings, means of acquiring patents, the cost of enforcing them and the earnings that the trolls generate. Accordingly, the agency hopes to "develop a better understanding of how they impact innovation and competition."
For comparison sake, the FTC also proposes an information request from approximately 15 companies in the wireless communication sector, which would include manufacturers and other licensing entities. You're more than welcome to answer the bridge question in the comments, but if you want to contact the FTC directly, you'll find everything you need after the break.
[Image credit: Tristan Schmurr / Flickr]
Filed under: Misc
Source: FTC
Google pledges to change its ways to assuage FTC anti-competitive concerns
Google's drawn the ire of the Federal Trade Commission for myriad reasons over the past year, and so the FTC began a formal investigation into those transgressions. Today, Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced that the investigation has concluded with a settlement after the FTC found several issues with the way Big G does business. Head on past the break for a full rundown of the FTC's findings.
Continue reading Google pledges to change its ways to assuage FTC anti-competitive concerns
Source: FTC, Google Official Blog
Court approves FTC’s $22.5 million penalty for Google over Safari cookies
The FTC might not have been impressed with Google bypassing Safari cookie settings in the name of +1 functionality, but it'll at least be satisfied with the outcome. A Northern District of California federal court has approved the FTC's proposed settlement, which sees Google pay a $22.5 million penalty in addition to altering its cookie behavior to respect privacy in Apple's browser. The fiscal punishment is a drop in the bucket for a company that might well make up that loss by the time you're done reading this; all the same, we'll take it if other web companies are more mindful of their behavior in the future.
Filed under: Internet, Apple, Google
Source: FTC