April 2011

Food for thought

When browsing for a riveting read at the local bookstore, you might pick up a John Grisham or dive into a Stieg Larsson.  Unlike those best sellers, one author’s name that might not jump off the jacket is “Interagency Working Group.”  But in the case of the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children’s hot-off-the-presses Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles to Guide Industry Self-Regulatory Efforts (try tweeting that) you reall

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Debt Collection 2.0

Cell phones, email, social media, auto-dialers, databases, and payment portals.  This ain’t your Father’s debt collection business.  That’s why an April 28, 2011, FTC workshop, Debt Collection 2.0:  Protecting Consumers as Technologies Change, will focus on the impact developments like these are having on the consumer debt collection system.  As the agenda shows, the conversation will center on how technologies affect debt collectors’ compliance with the law and the cons

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Won't get fauxed again

If you haven’t seen the ads, you’ve probably been too busy listening to eight-tracks and playing Pong because billions — with a capital B — have been served up online. They look like news investigations about acai berry weight loss products conducted by independent journalists for reputable news outlets featuring the logos of national media and follow-up comments by satisfied consumers.

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Cleaning up ad claims

Science, studies, and statistics. There’s a reason advertisers feature them so prominently. When used accurately, they can be powerful tools for distinguishing your product from the competitors. But scientific claims — especially health-related ones — need solid proof.

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The FTC's settlement with Google: Part 4

Business practices at odds with promises in the company’s privacy policy. The failure to disclose adequately that the contacts with whom users emailed and chatted the most would become public by default. Confusing and hard-to-find controls to limit the sharing of personal info. False claims about adherence to the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor privacy framework.

Those were the allegations in the FTC’s complaint against Google. What changes will the agency’s proposed settlement bring about at the company?

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Workshop to examine lottery, other money transfer scams

It may have happened to an employee, one of your customers, or a member of your family.  Someone calls to report “You’re a winner!” of a foreign lottery.  To collect, all they have to do is wire money to cover the taxes and fees.  Or the caller impersonates a grandchild or other friend-in-need and says they’re desperate to have money wired now.  Both are examples of the elaborate schemes scam artists have come up with to try to convince people to wire cash to someone they don’t know.

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The FTC's settlement with Google: Part 3

As any business knows, it is indeed a small world after all.  And the FTC’s recent settlement with Google related to the launch of its Google Buzz social network demonstrates why it’s important for companies to think about the global ramifications of their privacy practices.

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The FTC’s settlement with Google: Part 2

According to the FTC’s recent settlement with Google, when people declined to sign up for Google Buzz, the company’s new social network, Google nonetheless enrolled them in certain features without their consent.

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Hacked Off by an Email Data Breach?

According to news reports, hackers recently accessed the database of Epsilon, a large marketing company that sends emails on behalf of banks, stores and other businesses.  Was your company an Epsilon client?  If so, the stolen information could make it easier for crooks to send emails that appear to be from your brand.

Here are a few things you can do to help your customers avoid a phishing attack that abuses your brand.

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The FTC's Google settlement: What's the buzz?

“Sweet!  Check out Buzz.”

“Nah, go to my inbox.”

That was the intriguing choice facing Gmail users last year when Google launched Google Buzz, its social network. But according to a settlement announced this week by the FTC, the company violated the privacy promises it made to Gmail users and used deceptive tactics in the Buzz rollout.

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