Hasta La Gadget!

The FTC today froze the assets of 14 companies involved in a long-term scam. These companies, usually based in India, cold-called up English-speaking consumers posing as a representative of a major tech company, such as Microsoft, Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus), and Dell. Using the credibility that they stole posing as representatives of a tech company, they told the marks that their PCs (usually Windows) were infected with nasty malware. Regardless of whether the PC was actually infected or not, the scammers offered to clean the machines, but not for free. Usually the scammers asked for $50-$500 in exchange for “cleaning” the computer. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5 email scam in full swing, “Lady Gaga found dead in hotel room” is a scam,

Hundreds of thousands of PCs are rented every year in the United States. And, it turns out, a huge chunk of them have absurdly invasive, incredibly dangerous spyware preinstalled—by the company that rents them. More »

Today an investigation into the proposed purchase of the photo sharing app Instagram by the social network Facebook has been ended as silently as it was started. The acquisition of Instagram was made famous earlier this year as Facebook payed a reported $1 billion dollar sum to take over the brand in its entirety. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition worked with the Bureau of Economics to investigate the deal to make sure no anticompetitive business practices were taking place – they found nothing to write home about.

Now that the FTC has approved of the deal here in the United States, Facebook and Instagram may move forward – of course there’s always your international regulatory groups snooping around the deal, but once the FTC has had their say, generally a deal such as this pretty much hits the afterburners. The Commission this week voted to close the investigation of the deal with a vote of 5-0 to complete – to a degree.

April J Tabor, Acting Secretary for the Federal Trade Commission’s letter to Councel for Instagram read in part as follows:

“Upon further review of this matter, it now appears that no further action is warranted by the Commission at this time. Accordingly, the investigation has been closed. This action is not to be construed as a determination that a violation may not have occurred, just as the pendency of an investigation should not be construed as a determination that a violation has occurred. The Commission reserves the right to take such further action as the public interest may require.”

The same letter was sent to Councel for Facebook, citing in both cases a possible violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act or Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Have a peek at our timeline below to track this deal back to its roots, and let the Instagram flow through you, you Facebook-loving socialite!

BONUS: the image you see at the head of this post comes from a conceptual design rendering of a Facebook phone designed by Tolga Tuncer – complete with an Instagram button!

[via FTC]

FTC Facebook Instagram investigation ends silently is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google recently paid the FTC $22.5 million and Facebook was ordered by the commission to change the way it handles data, but you might be surprised to hear that both companies did nothing wrong. Well, not exactly, but by settling their privacy violation cases, the internet giants are entitled to deny any misconduct. The New York Times reports that J. Thomas Rosch, a commissioner who voted against both settlements, feels that current rules will invite “denials of liability in every case in the future.” Rosch wants the policy changed so companies can’t deny responsibility when settling, much like the way the SEC handles similar indiscretions. Most of his colleagues weren’t in a hurry to back his opinions, but three did say that refining the process could “avoid any possible public misimpression” of how the FTC strikes such deals. The commission is expected to look at the issue in the near future, but until then, we’re sure you’re more than able to separate the reality from the legalese.

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FTC considering new settlement process so companies can’t deny wrongdoing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, Mark Zuckerberg is finally trying to make things right after admitting to a “bunch of mistakes” when dealing with user privacy on his juggernaut of a social network. The FTC and Facebook had agreed to settle the dispute in November, and now the final details of the deal have been ironed out. Noticeably missing from the list of concessions is cash. The government isn’t asking Facebook to cough up any dough as part of the settlement — avoiding the sort of hefty fine that Google recently found itself on the wrong end of. The company will, however, have drastically revamp how it handles user data and subject itself to privacy audits every two years for 20 years. Customers will now be provided with “clear and prominent” warnings any time information is shared. And, before anything can be shared, users must give express consent to for that information to be distributed. Ideally, these measures would have been in place on day one, but we’ll take what we can get at this point. For more details, check out the FTC’s press release after the break.

Continue reading FTC and Facebook settle privacy dispute, skip the fine

Filed under: Internet

FTC and Facebook settle privacy dispute, skip the fine originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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