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.
Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from,and is supported by,unsolicited grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial backers.
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.
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.
POM Wonderful,LLC is a private company which sells an eponymous brand of pomegranate juices,pomegranate arils,and teas. It was founded in 2002 by the billionaire industrial agriculture couple Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick. POM Wonderful is one of several food brands held within The Wonderful Company owned and managed by the Resnicks.
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.
A debt buyer is a company,sometimes a collection agency,a private debt collection law firm,or a private investor,that purchases delinquent or charged-off debts from a creditor or lender for a percentage of the face value of the debt based on the potential collectibility of the accounts. The debt buyer can then collect on its own,utilize the services of a third-party collection agency,repackage and resell portions of the purchased portfolio,or use any combination of these options.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers,people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram,YouTube,Snapchat,TikTok or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising,according to the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. The FTC started enforcing this on a large scale in 2016,sending letters to several companies and influencers who had failed to disclosed sponsored content. Many Instagram influencers started using #ad in response and feared that this would affect their income. However,fans increased their engagement after disclosure,being happy that they were landing such deals. This success led to some creators creating their own product lines in 2017. Some influencers fake sponsored content to grain credibility and promote themselves. Backlash to sponsored content became more prominent in mid-2018,leading to many influencers to focus instead on authenticity.
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 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.
Julie Simone Brill is an American lawyer who is 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 was a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2010 to 2016.
Do Not Track (DNT) is a deprecated non-standard 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.
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.
Rohit Chopra is an American businessman who was 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.
