ftc

ID theft up, and 20-somethings suffer most

Update at 9:30 a.m. PST: A new chart has been added to the end of the article.

This was originally published in ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Identity theft cases surged in 2008, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Last year, ID theft was by far the biggest complaint to the FTC, representing 26 percent of total problems reported. The next biggest one--third-party and creditor debt collection scams--represented only 9 percent of complaints.

The FTC's annual Consumer Sentinel Network report (PDF), released Thursday, details that ID theft complaints totaled nearly 314,000 in 2008, up from about … Read more

Obama picks Leibowitz as FTC chairman

President Obama plans to appoint current Federal Trade Commission member Jon Leibowitz to lead the agency, which partially enforces antitrust laws and has taken a recent interest in online advertising.

An administration official on Monday confirmed to CNET News that Leibowitz, a Democrat appointed to the five-person commission in 2004, would be nominated as chairman.

Liberal groups including the ACLU and U.S. PIRG last year called on the Obama administration to appoint a chairman who would take a more regulatory approach. More recently, many of those same groups criticized the FTC's view that self-regulation of online targeted advertising … Read more

Congressman, privacy groups challenge FTC Web-ad policy

A government regulatory agency said Thursday that it will continue to push for better self-regulation of online behavioral advertising, but privacy advocates--as well as a key congressman who plans to introduce data collection legislation soon--say self-regulation will not sufficiently protect consumers.

After considering public comments over the past two months, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday released a revised set of four principles to guide self-regulation of online targeted ads. Yet the changes to the principles are minimal, privacy advocates say, and may even create more loopholes for online companies collecting behavioral data. Critics also charge the guidelines punt the … Read more

Privacy groups ask Obama for stronger FTC

About a dozen leading privacy and consumer groups met with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Tuesday to discuss the Federal Trade Commission's role in protecting consumer privacy.

While participating organizations addressed a range of problems and potential solutions, the underlying message was clear: the FTC has for too long allowed industries to self-regulate their online privacy practices--to the detriment of consumers.

"The FTC keeps moving the goal post on what privacy advocates need to prove" before it provides substantive regulation, said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's … Read more

Site educates on holiday-themed online threats

Did your brother-in-law really send you a singing holiday card? Did a long-lost friend from college really include you on this year's list?

One inexpensive way to send holiday cheer may be to send e-cards, but security vendor AVG warned on Tuesday that online criminals are taking advantage of the fact most people don't know the difference between a legitimate e-card and one hosting malware.

Last week security vendors warned of a Trojan horse masquerading as holiday-themed e-cards from McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Hallmark.

To better educate the public, AVG has launched a site, "Slam the Holiday Scam,", … Read more

FTC all but bans robocalls

WASHINGTON--The Federal Trade Commission essentially banned robocalls Tuesday--creating new rules that telemarketers may only send the prerecorded sales pitches to people who actually want to receive them.

The FTC amended its Telemarketing Sales Rule after reviewing more than 14,000 comments made since October 2006, when proposed amendments were published for public consideration.

There are two stages to the change: By December 2008, robocalls will be required to include an automated key-press or voice-activated opt-out. Beginning September 2009, telemarketers won't be able to send out any robocalls without "the prior express written agreement of the recipient to receive … Read more

FTC plans formal investigation of Intel

Updated 10:00am PT with statement from AMD

Intel's business practices will come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which has opened a formal antitrust investigation of the chipmaker.

The New York Times, citing lawyers and government officials, reported on Friday morning that subpoenas have begun to arrive at the offices of the world's major PC companies.

Intel has been under intense scrutiny in other parts of the world, especially in Europe, South Korea, and Japan, but it has faced little objection to its business practices here at home in recent years, other than … Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: Getting ready for Road Trip 2008

Space shuttles, Corvettes, and more await CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman on his annual tech trek. Listen now: Download today's podcast

For the third straight year, CNET News.com reporter and Geek Gestalt blogger Daniel Terdiman is taking his show on the road.

For three weeks he'll be wandering the southeastern United States with a gaggle of gadgets in tow as he checks out the geekiest places the South has to offer. Daniel joins Erica Ogg to talk about the places he's most excited to see, as well as the best ways for readers to interact … Read more

Web monitoring for ads? It may be illegal

Online advertising has ballooned into a roughly $45 billion-a-year business, to the benefit of Google, Yahoo, ad networks, and innumerable speciality and hobbyist Web sites.

One corner of this ecosystem that hasn't managed to cash in on advertising is, by some measurements, the largest: broadband providers. So it may have been inevitable that they would seek additional revenue by monitoring their customers' online activities and creating behavioral profiles that could yield hyper-relevant ads.

The only problem with this practice is that it may not be entirely, well, legal. The first warning sign came last week when two members of … Read more

Can the Feds enforce Net neutrality? Maybe not

WASHINGTON--Federal regulators may be probing Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent filesharing traffic, but can they actually take action, if they choose, against the company or any other broadband provider on Net neutrality grounds?

The answer may not be simple. And if the FCC and other regulators are really powerless--in other words, if they need Congress to enact new laws--it means that any threats to take action against Comcast, based on alleged violations of the law today, are merely empty ones.

That's the issue that former staffers and officials from the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission took up … Read more