A Final Burst of Antitrust Guidance

antitrust

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have published new guidelines on how prosecutors will evaluate companies’ employment agreements, information-sharing arrangements, and other practices that might violate antitrust law, even as the Biden Administration glides out the door. The two agencies released the guidelines (a slim 13 pages long) on Thursday. The guidelines review the…

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Two Companies, Two Cyber Enforcement Actions

cybersecurity

These may be the final days of the Biden Administration, but enforcement in cybersecurity still marches onward: two different regulators just sanctioned two different companies for two different types of cybersecurity failure. Let’s take a look. First is GoDaddy.com, one of the largest web hosting businesses in the world. The Federal Trade Commission spanked GoDaddy…

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FTC Strikes Again on AI Controls

AI

The Federal Trade Commission has dinged a California business for making misleading statements about the accuracy of facial-recognition technology that the company sells — yet another enforcement action over artificial intelligence that offers numerous lessons for corporate compliance and audit professionals. The company in question is IntelliVision Technologies, a subsidiary of Nice North America, which…

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Marriott Settles Huge Privacy Case

marriott

Marriott International has reached a settlement with state and federal regulators over repeated privacy breaches the hotel chain suffered in the 2010s, where Marriott will pay $52 million states across the country and implement a raft of cybersecurity improvements under the watchful eye of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC and state attorneys general announced…

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More Tips on Good Data Protection

data protection

Another week, another enforcement action from the Federal Trade Commission giving us a glimpse into what modern data protection programs should look like. This time the company in question is a telecommunications company that flubbed basic data protection protocols and then suffered a breach; and as usual, the FTC gives compliance, privacy, and IT security…

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FTC Hits Rite Aid on AI Usage

Rite Aid

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Rite Aid not to use an AI-driven facial recognition system to identify potential shoplifters, in the latest and most vivid example yet of regulators cracking down on how companies might put artificial intelligence to use. The settlement was announced on Tuesday. According to the FTC, Rite Aid deployed AI-based…

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That Massive Privacy Settlement for Fortnite

Like so many other adults in this world, I have children who play Fortnite. When they play, they ignore me. This gives me time for other pursuits, such as reading the massive enforcement action and compliance reforms that the feds just imposed on Fortnite. You may have seen the headlines already. Epic Games, the owner…

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Another FTC Cyber Enforcement Case

Chegg

Another week, another enforcement action from the Federal Trade Commission to remind the rest of us what steps we should take to protect consumers’ personal data. This time the company going to the woodshed is Chegg, an education tech company that lumbered along for years with poor data protection practices. Chegg provides textbooks, study aides,…

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Bold FTC Action Against Drizly

drizly

Fascinating enforcement action from the Federal Trade Commission this week, which brought charges of poor cybersecurity practices against an online liquor store and its CEO personally — who will need to abide by the terms of the consent order even if he leaves the company and takes another job elsewhere! The company is Drizly.com, which…

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FTC Serves MoviePass Its Final Scene

moviepass

The folks behind MoviePass have agreed to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission that the business worked to subvert customers’ ability to use the film subscription service and failed to protect personal data, in a messy case that’s quite the example of poor leadership and poor privacy compliance all rolled into one. For those…

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