David Vladeck

Last updated
David Vladeck
David Vladeck 2011.jpg
Born (1951-06-06) June 6, 1951 (age 73)
New York City, U.S.
Education New York University (BA)
Columbia University (JD)
Georgetown University (LLM)
TitleDirector of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission
PredecessorLydia Parnes
SuccessorJessica Rich
Relatives Judith Vladeck (mother)
Steve Vladeck (nephew)
Baruch Vladeck (grandfather)

David C. Vladeck (born June 6, 1951) [1] is the former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency of the United States government. He was appointed by the chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, on April 14, 2009, [2] shortly after Leibowitz became chairman. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Vladeck is a native of New York City. [1] He comes from a family of lawyers. His father, Stephen Vladeck, founded a worker's rights firm in 1948, which his wife, Judith, joined in 1957. [4] [5] Vladeck's sister, Anne, is a partner at the same firm, while his nephew, Stephen, is a law professor at the University of Texas School of Law. [6] [7] [8] Vladeck’s brother, Bruce, headed the Health Care Financing Administration, now called the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, under President Bill Clinton.

Vladeck received his B.A. from New York University in 1972, and graduated with a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1976. He received an L.L.M. the from Georgetown Law Center in 1977. [9] While a student at New York University, Vladeck played on the school’s basketball team [1]

Career

Before joining the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, Vladeck spent nearly 30 years as a lawyer at the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the litigation arm of Public Citizen, an advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader. He served as the group’s director for 10 years. [2] While at the Public Citizen Litigation Group, Vladeck argued a number of cases in front of the United States Supreme Court, including cases about the First Amendment, civil rights and labor law. [10] He also argued more than 60 cases in front of federal courts of appeal and state courts of last resort. [2]

Vladeck was a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center for seven years before his appointment to head the Bureau of Consumer Protection. [11] While at Georgetown, he served as the co-director of the Institute for Public Representation, leading the Institute's work in civil rights. He taught courses in federal courts, civil procedure, and government processes and co-directed the Institute for Public Representation, a legal clinic. [12]

Policy priorities

Vladeck’s appointment to head the Bureau of Consumer Protection was lauded by consumer advocates, who felt that the bureau had shown a pro-business bias under commissioners appointed by George W. Bush in areas such as consumer financial services and online privacy. [13] [14] Since taking office, Vladeck has made clear that he intends to make significant changes to the Bureau’s approach in a few key areas.

Technology and privacy

Since the FTC started to regulate online privacy issues, in the mid-1990s, its focus has been on whether consumers are provided with proper notice about what information may be collected from them and on whether they are given some choice about how it is collected and used. This philosophy was laid out in the fair information practice principles (FIPs)", published in a 1998 FTC report to Congress about online privacy. The Bureau of Consumer Protection has traditionally taken the position that as long as consumers are provided with notice through company privacy policies, collection and use of consumer data is acceptable; and that the bureau should only intervene when a company’s information practices cause concrete, economic harm to consumers. [15] [16]

Vladeck has stated that he doesn’t believe this existing model succeeds in protecting consumers’ privacy online. [17] He has advocated a new framework that is broader than just economic interests, and that doesn’t rely solely on privacy policies to protect consumers online. [18] In a recent interview with the New York Times, Vladeck argued that, "I don’t believe that most consumers either read [privacy policies], or, if they read them, really understand it [sic]. Second of all, consent in the face of these kinds of quote disclosures, I’m not sure that consent really reflects a volitional, knowing act." [19]

Vladeck’s approach to online privacy was seen in his handling of FTC litigation against Sears in In the Matter of Sears Holdings Management Corporation. In June 2009, shortly after Vladeck assumed office, the Bureau of Consumer Protection settled a case against Sears. The company had offered consumers $10 to download software that tracked their internet browsing. The software collected information such as medical prescriptions and financial information. The software contained a privacy policy with detailed disclosures about the type of information to be collected and how it would be used, and consumers suffered no economic harm when they downloaded it. Nevertheless, the FTC sued the company for its practice. Vladeck stated that "under the harm framework, we couldn’t have brought that case," but that because "there’s a huge dignity interest wrapped up in having somebody looking at your financial records when they have no business doing that," the commission was justified in suing. [20]

Financial regulation

Consumer advocates have criticized the FTC in recent years for its lack of active regulation of financial services providers, including companies providing and servicing subprime mortgages in the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2010. As Mother Jones magazine noted during the Bush Administration, the FTC "brought an average of one subprime lending case a year (in 2004 and 2005 there weren't any), even as the industry was experiencing record growth and complaints mounted about abusive practices leading to home foreclosures." [21]

Advertising and marketing

In an October 2009 speech to its national advertising division, Vladeck set forth his plan for the Bureau of Consumer Protection's regulation of advertising and marketing practices. He stated that the bureau would have a renewed focus on national advertising, going after large companies that advertise widely and put forth deceptive or unsubstantiated claims, not just small companies perpetrating direct fraud. He also indicated the bureau would particularly focus on food advertising, health claims in advertising and advertising and marketing practices directed at children. [22]

Additionally, since Vladeck took office, the bureau revised its endorsement guides, guidelines to advertisers who use endorsements and testimonials. [23] Previously, the guides – which were last revised in 1980 - only required product testimonials claiming exceptional results to have a disclaimer that said "Results Not Typical". Under the new guidelines, using such testimonials will now require advertisers to "clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results consumers can expect in the depicted circumstances." [24] The guidelines also – somewhat controversially – require bloggers making an endorsement to disclose their "material connections" to the product’s manufacturer or seller. [25] [26]

A positive response to the new rules and laws regarding endorsements and testimonials is an increased level of website compliance standards being adopted that includes the third-party verification of the testimonials businesses present on their websites.[ citation needed ] These companies, such as testimonialshield.com, collect the data regarding a customer's transaction and experience with a company and with a combined technology and sometimes even personal interviews with the customers to determine the authenticity of the testimonials. Once the testimonials, reviews and/or results are verified, the company can include them in their profiles and add a 'trust mark' similar to that of Verisign, the Better Business Bureau, or Good Housekeeping. The presence of this seal or trust mark helps consumers determine how much weight they should give to the testimonials they are reading before making a decision to support a business.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Vladeck is married and has two sons, both of whom pitched for their college baseball teams. One is also a Georgetown Law graduate.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Trade Commission</span> United States government agency

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Testimonial</span> Statement extolling the virtue of a product or person

In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, whereas the word "endorsement" usually applies to pitches by celebrities. Testimonials can be part of communal marketing.

DoubleClick Inc. was an American advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primarily to advertising agencies and mass media, serving businesses like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa Inc., Nike, Inc., and Carlsberg Group. The company's main product line was known as DART, which was intended to increase the purchasing efficiency of advertisers and minimize unsold inventory for publishers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Credit Reporting Act</span> U.S. federal legislation

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., is federal legislation enacted to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information contained in the files of consumer reporting agencies. It was intended to shield consumers from the willful and/or negligent inclusion of erroneous data in their credit reports. To that end, the FCRA regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information, including consumer credit information. Together with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the FCRA forms the foundation of consumer rights law in the United States. It was originally passed in 1970, and is enforced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and private litigants.

A privacy policy is a statement or legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify an individual, not limited to the person's name, address, date of birth, marital status, contact information, ID issue, and expiry date, financial records, credit information, medical history, where one travels, and intentions to acquire goods and services. In the case of a business, it is often a statement that declares a party's policy on how it collects, stores, and releases personal information it collects. It informs the client what specific information is collected, and whether it is kept confidential, shared with partners, or sold to other firms or enterprises. Privacy policies typically represent a broader, more generalized treatment, as opposed to data use statements, which tend to be more detailed and specific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Pitofsky</span> Federal Trade Commission chair (1929–2018)

Robert Pitofsky was an American lawyer and politician who was the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States from April 11, 1995, to May 31, 2001. He had previously been Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center from 1983 to 1989, and was Dean Emeritus at the time of his death.

TrustArc Inc. is a privacy compliance technology company based in Walnut Creek, California. The company provides software and services to help corporations update their privacy management processes so they comply with government laws and best practices. Their privacy seal or certification of compliance can be used as a marketing tool. 　

BBB National Programs, an independent non-profit organization that oversees more than a dozen national industry self-regulation programs that provide third-party accountability and dispute resolution services to companies, including outside and in-house counsel, consumers, and others in arenas such as privacy, advertising, data collection, child-directed marketing, and more. The Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) is BBB National Programs' 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation. CISR supports responsible business leaders in developing fair, future-proof best practices, and the education of the public on the conditions necessary for industry self-regulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine A. Varney</span> American lawyer (born 1955)

Christine A. Varney is an American antitrust attorney who served as the U.S. assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division for the Obama administration and as a Federal Trade commissioner in the Clinton administration. Since August 2011, Varney has been a partner of the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where she chairs the antitrust department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Leibowitz</span> American lawyer

Jonathan David Leibowitz is an American attorney who served under President Barack Obama as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2009 to 2013. Leibowitz was appointed to the commission in 2004, and resigned in 2013. During Leibowitz's tenure, the FTC brought privacy cases against Google, Facebook and others for violating consumer privacy, as well as enforcement against "pay-for-delay" deals in which pharmaceutical companies paid competitors to stay out of the market. Prior to joining the FTC, Leibowitz was Vice President for Congressional Affairs from 2000 to 2004 of the MPAA.

The United States Commission's fair information practice principles (FIPPs) are guidelines that represent widely accepted concepts concerning fair information practice in an electronic marketplace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FTC regulation of behavioral advertising</span> US Regulations on Advertising Targeted by Online Activity

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been involved in oversight of the behavioral targeting techniques used by online advertisers since the mid-1990s. These techniques, initially called "online profiling", are now referred to as "behavioral targeting"; they are used to target online behavioral advertising (OBA) to consumers based on preferences inferred from their online behavior. During the period from the mid-1990s to the present, the FTC held a series of workshops, published a number of reports, and gave numerous recommendations regarding both industry self-regulation and Federal regulation of OBA. In late 2010, the FTC proposed a legislative framework for U.S. consumer data privacy including a proposal for a "Do Not Track" mechanism. In 2011, a number of bills were introduced into the United States Congress that would regulate OBA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Brill</span> American lawyer

Julie Simone Brill is an American lawyer who serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Vice President for Global Privacy, Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft. Prior to her role at Microsoft, Brill was nominated by President Barack Obama on November 16, 2009, and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate to serve as Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission on March 3, 2010. Brill served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2010 to 2016.

Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of data derived from that activity outside the context in which it occurred.

Do Not Track legislation protects Internet users' right to choose whether or not they want to be tracked by third-party websites. It has been called the online version of "Do Not Call". This type of legislation is supported by privacy advocates and opposed by advertisers and services that use tracking information to personalize web content. Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of that data outside its context. Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the World Wide Web Consortium did not reach their goal and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Hoofnagle</span>

Chris Jay Hoofnagle is an American professor at the University of California, Berkeley who teaches information privacy law, computer crime law, regulation of online privacy, internet law, and seminars on new technology. Hoofnagle has contributed to the privacy literature by writing privacy law legal reviews and conducting research on the privacy preferences of Americans. Notably, his research demonstrates that most Americans prefer not to be targeted online for advertising and despite claims to the contrary, young people care about privacy and take actions to protect it. Hoofnagle has written scholarly articles regarding identity theft, consumer privacy, U.S. and European privacy laws, and privacy policy suggestions.

<i>United States v. Google Inc.</i>

United States v. Google Inc., No. 3:12-cv-04177, is a case in which the United States District Court for the Northern District of California approved a stipulated order for a permanent injunction and a $22.5 million civil penalty judgment, the largest civil penalty the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ever won in history. The FTC and Google Inc. consented to the entry of the stipulated order to resolve the dispute which arose from Google's violation of its privacy policy. In this case, the FTC found Google liable for misrepresenting "privacy assurances to users of Apple's Safari Internet browser". It was reached after the FTC considered that through the placement of advertising tracking cookies in the Safari web browser, and while serving targeted advertisements, Google violated the 2011 FTC's administrative order issued in FTC v. Google Inc.

The gathering of personally identifiable information (PII) refers to the collection of public and private personal data that can be used to identify individuals for various purposes, both legal and illegal. PII gathering is often seen as a privacy threat by data owners, while entities such as technology companies, governments, and organizations utilize this data to analyze consumer behavior, political preferences, and personal interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohit Chopra</span> American consumer advocate (born 1982)

Rohit Chopra is an American consumer advocate who is the third director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previous member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Prior to this, Chopra served as assistant director of the CFPB and as the agency's first Student Loan Ombudsman, an office created by the Dodd–Frank Act.

Financial privacy laws regulate the manner in which financial institutions handle the nonpublic financial information of consumers. In the United States, financial privacy is regulated through laws enacted at the federal and state level. Federal regulations are primarily represented by the Bank Secrecy Act, Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Provisions within other laws like the Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act of 2007 as well as the Electronic Funds Transfer Act also contribute to financial privacy in the United States. State regulations vary from state to state. While each state approaches financial privacy differently, they mostly draw from federal laws and provide more stringent outlines and definitions. Government agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission provide enforcement for financial privacy regulations.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hart, Kim (15 April 2009). "Law Professor to Lead FTC's Consumer Unit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz Appoints Senior Staff" (Press release). Federal Trade Commission. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "President Obama Announces More Key Appointments". whitehouse.gov (Press release). 27 February 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2010– via National Archives.
  4. ↑ "Judith Vladeck, 83, Who Fought for Women's Rights, Dies". The New York Times. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  5. ↑ "Matter of Albertson (Lubin) 8 N.Y. 2d 77 (1960)". Leagle. 26 May 1960. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Stephen I. Vladeck". University of Texas School of Law . Retrieved 23 October 2016. A nationally recognized expert on the role of the federal courts in the war on terrorism, Vladeck's prolific and widely cited scholarship has appeared in an array of legal publications—including the Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal — and his popular writing has been published in forums ranging from the New York Times to BuzzFeed. Vladeck, who is a Supreme Court analyst for CNN and a co-author of Aspen Publishers' leading national security law and counterterrorism law casebooks, frequently represents parties or amici in litigation challenging government counterterrorism policies, and has authored reports on related topics for a wide range of organizations—including the First Amendment Center, the Constitution Project, and the ABA's Standing Committee on Law and National Security.
  7. ↑ "Judith P. Vladeck, R.I.P." Above the Law . 11 January 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "American University Bio, Stephen I. Vladeck Professor of Law". Archived from the original on 20 July 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  9. ↑ "David Vladeck: Litigation Leader" (PDF). Georgetown Law Alumni Magazine. Spring–Summer 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  10. ↑ "Cases Argued by Public Citizen Litigation Group Attorneys in the Supreme Court of the United States". Public Citizen Litigation Group. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  11. ↑ "Biographies of Keynote Speakers, Consumer Rights Litigation Conference 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 4 March 2010.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ "Biography of David C. Vladeck". Law.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  13. ↑ Clifford, Stephanie (4 August 2009). "Fresh Views at Agency Overseeing Online Ads". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  14. ↑ Mencimer, Stephanie (20 April 2009). "Financial Sleazebags, Watch Out!". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  15. ↑ "An Interview with David Vladeck of the F.T.C." The New York Times, Media Decoder Blog. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  16. ↑ Clifford, Stephanie (4 August 2009). "Fresh Views at Agency Overseeing Online Ads". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  17. ↑ "An Interview with David Vladeck of the F.T.C." The New York Times, Media Decoder Blog. August 5, 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  18. ↑ Clifford, Stephanie (August 4, 2009). "Fresh Views at Agency Overseeing Online Ads". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  19. ↑ "An Interview with David Vladeck of the F.T.C." The New York Times, Media Decoder Blog. August 5, 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  20. ↑ Clifford, Stephanie (4 August 2009). "Fresh Views at Agency Overseeing Online Ads". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  21. ↑ Mencimer, Stephanie (20 April 2009). "Financial Sleazebags, Watch Out!". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  22. ↑ "National Advertising Division Annual Conference New York, NY. Remarks of David Vladeck, Director FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection" (PDF). 5 October 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  23. ↑ "FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials" (Press release). Federal Trade Commission. 5 October 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  24. ↑ "Remarks of David C. Vladeck to the Electronic Retailing Association, Great Ideas Summit New Orleans, LA: A Look Forward With the FTC: Advertising and Marketing Enforcement Challenges" (PDF). 3 February 2010. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  25. ↑ "FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials" (Press release). Federal Trade Commission. 5 October 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
  26. ↑ Shafer, Jack (7 October 2009). "The FTC's Mad Power Grab: The commission's preposterous new endorsement guidelines". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.