The 10th Circuit has upheld (pdf) a ruling against Accusearch that the company violated federal law when it sold telephone records on its web site, Abika.com. The Federal Trade Commission had alleged that Accusearch’s trade in telephone records constituted an unfair practice in violation of § 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA). Accusearch…
Category: Business
Court orders spammers to give up $3.7 million
A U.S. district court has ordered key players in an international spam ring to give up $3.7 million that they made by sending out illegal e-mail messages pitching bogus hoodia weight-loss products and a “human growth hormone” pill they claimed reversed the aging process. In a Federal Trade Commission law enforcement action, the court found…
Abandoned business records can’t be destroyed
Every year, businesses go under and disappear, leaving behind boxes of transaction records, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information that could lead to identity theft and other forms of fraud. Landlords and owners of storage companies, who tend to get stuck holding these records, have no legal way to dispose of them and are…
Online behavioral advertising principles
A group of the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations today released self-regulatory principles to protect consumer privacy in ad-supported interactive media that will require advertisers and Web sites to clearly inform consumers about data collection practices and enable them to exercise control over that information. This unprecedented collaboration represents the entire marketing-media industry…