May 2011
Time to kick the tires on the FTC’s Alternative Fuels Rule
We’re still waiting for George Jetson’s promised jetpacks, but car buyers have started to see transportation options not available just a few years ago. That’s one reason the FTC has begun a review the Alternative Fuels Rule and seeks your input about the rule’s costs, benefits, and regulatory and economic impact.
Dot Com 2.0 (Does anybody say 2.0 anymore?)
Where were you in 2000? Tooling around on your scooter listening to CDs by Destiny’s Child, ‘N Sync, and Creed? Joining the 50 million Americans who watched the latest TV sensation “Survivor”? Grateful the Y2K bug didn’t send us back to the Stone Age? Reading Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising, the FTC’s first guidance document on how federal advertising laws apply to advertising and sales on the Internet?
Free means free, says the FTC
You can swim freestyle. You can work freelance. And there are those among us who still hold up lighters and yell “Play Free Bird.” But for marketers, one thing you can’t do is advertise a product as free and then bill customers’ credit cards — not once and certainly not over and over and over again.
Six myths about filing comments with the FTC
You’ve seen the sentence when the FTC announces that it’s thinking about putting a new rule in place or changing what’s already on the books: “Interested parties are invited to submit comments. . .
Is everything COPPA-setic on your site?
For some businesses, virtual worlds aren’t on their radar screen. They have their hands full with this one, thanks. But for more and more people — including kids — online virtual worlds have become a central place for gaming and other activities. As the FTC’s recent $3 million settlement with Playdom and Howard Marks demonstrates, companies with an online presence need to take care to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Prote
Marketing food to kids: Continuing the conversation
By now, you’ve had a chance to read the proposed voluntary principles published on April 28, 2011, by the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. Made up of representatives from the FTC, FDA, USDA, and CDC, the group issued a draft calling on the food industry voluntarily to step up its efforts to improve the nutritional quality of foods they market directly to kids ages 2 to 17. The proposal — which isn’t a regulation — suggests ways to strengthen the voluntary efforts that are
Looking out for unauthorized access
With a corporate name like Lookout, it pays to — well — look out. Unfortunately, according to the FTC’s complaint against Lookout Services, Inc., the company’s questionable security practices left the door open for an employee of one of Lookout’s customers to access sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, of thousands of people.
Nitro in the trunk?
The French movie classic “The Wages of Fear” — remade in 1977 as “The Sorcerer” by American director William Friedkin — was a taut thriller about a team of toughs transporting a payload of volatile nitroglycerine to a remote location in South America. They meet with hazards along the way: a rope bridge hanging by a thread over a flood-swollen river, a boulder blocking a twisted mountain path, and a stretch of road so pot-holed it’s called “The Washboard.”
Taken aback by a hack attack?
Busy business executives and the attorneys who represent them need to unwind now and then. If PlayStation is your diversion-of-choice — or the choice of family members — you’ve probably heard the news that Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity service were hacked and that user data may have been compromised. It’s not clear right now what info was stolen, but the services held user IDs and passwords, email addresses, birth dates, street addresses, credit card numbers, expiration dates, and pa