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California Actively Enforcing its Delete Act against Data Brokers
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March 10, 2025
California Actively Enforcing its Delete Act against Data Brokers
By: Nicole Kardell
If you are a data broker and you are not registered in California, you may face sanctions, including fines and possible shut down of operations. The California Privacy Protection Agency is actively enforcing the state’s Delete Act, legislation that was enacted in 2023. The Delete Act requires entities that qualify as data brokers under the law to register annually with the CPPA and pay the associated fee. In October 2024, the CPPA announced that it would start a sweep to investigate and penalize data brokers that failed to comply. Making good on its promise, the agency recently released a statement that it settled with a data broker, Background Alert, Inc., for failing to register. The settlement requires the company to…
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FTC Cracking Down On Online Censorship
February 27, 2025
FTC Cracking Down On Online Censorship
By: Steven Eichorn
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently launched a public outreach effort to obtain information from the public regarding how they are treated by technology platforms. As explained by the FTC, they are seeking to “understand how technology platforms deny or degrade users’ access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliation, and how this conduct may have violated the law.” This…
Pause Play? CFPB Gaming-Related Rules on Hold
February 12, 2025
Pause Play? CFPB Gaming-Related Rules on Hold
By: Michelle Cohen
Newly installed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) Director Russell Vought directed agency staff to stop work on agency matters and stay home. The future of many of the CFPB-led initiatives looks bleak, including a recent interpretive rule proposal that would treat video game publishers like payment processors. Background Congress created the CFPB, an independent federal agency, in 2011 in response to the financial crisis of…
FTC Remains Tough on ‘Robocalls’ with New Enforcement Case
February 27, 2013
FTC Remains Tough on ‘Robocalls’ with New Enforcement Case
By: Ifrah Law
Once again, the FTC has completed a major enforcement action against the illegal use of robocalls, a form of prerecorded, computerized telemarketing calls. This time, the action resulted in a $1.1 million civil penalty against Roy M. Cox, an individual whom the FTC considered to be the architect of an illegal robocall operation. The FTC alleged that Cox and several companies he controlled were using…
Blood Bank Settles FTC Complaint About Customer Data Privacy
February 8, 2013
Blood Bank Settles FTC Complaint About Customer Data Privacy
By: Ifrah Law
Any company that collects personal information about individuals, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers, must be very careful about the way in which it stores and secures that information. Even a blood bank that stores umbilical cord blood needs to keep these privacy rules in clear view. That is one of the messages of a recent Federal Trade Commission action. California-based Cbr…
Maryland AG Launches New Internet Privacy Unit, Plans Aggressive Enforcement
February 5, 2013
Maryland AG Launches New Internet Privacy Unit, Plans Aggressive Enforcement
By: Ifrah Law
Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler (D) has announced that his office is launching a new Internet Privacy Unit designed to address issues related to online privacy and to ensure that companies are in compliance with state and federal consumer protection laws. The unit will also handle issues related to cyberbullying and cybersecurity. Gansler, who also serves as the president of the National Association of Attorneys…
NFL Sacks Football Fan’s Effort to Trademark ‘Harbowl’
January 30, 2013
NFL Sacks Football Fan’s Effort to Trademark ‘Harbowl’
By: Ifrah Law
When the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers won their NFL conference championship games, a Super Bowl matchup emerged with a great storyline — the opposing head coaches are brothers. An interesting legal question has also developed regarding the right to trademarks associated with the match-up between brothers. Last February, Roy Fox, a football fan in Indiana, said he spent more than $1,000 to file…
Criminal Background Checks? The FTC Knows There’s an App for That
January 24, 2013
Criminal Background Checks? The FTC Knows There’s an App for That
By: Ifrah Law
As we cautioned in a September post, the FTC is stepping up enforcement actions against mobile app developers for failure to comply with consumer protection principles. This month, the FTC took another major step in that direction with a groundbreaking settlement applying the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to app developers Filquarian Publishing, LLC, Choice Level, LLC, and Joshua Linsk. The FCRA is a consumer…
