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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…
Telemarketing Tips: What We Can Learn From Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Excursion With The FTC
April 2, 2015
Telemarketing Tips: What We Can Learn From Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Excursion With The FTC
By: Michelle Cohen
The FTC’s “Do Not Call” and “robocall” rules do not apply to political survey calls. So, if Hillary Clinton sought to “voice blast” a survey about international issues, she could do so without violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”). (Though under FCC rules she would have an issue calling wireless numbers). However, companies may not telemarket under the guise of exempt political calls. Caribbean…
Why the FTC Can Go After Companies For Insufficient Data Security Allegations
March 6, 2015
Why the FTC Can Go After Companies For Insufficient Data Security Allegations
By: Jeffrey Hamlin
FTC seems more confident than ever in its authority to go after companies with insufficient data security measures. As of January 2015, FTC had settled 53 data-security enforcement actions, and FTC Senior Attorney Lesley Fair expects that number to increase. Not everyone is sanguine about FTC’s enforcement efforts. Companies targeted for administrative action complain that the Commission is acting beyond its delegated powers under…
Another Class Action Pops Up For Complaints About Pop-Ups
March 3, 2015
Another Class Action Pops Up For Complaints About Pop-Ups
By: Ifrah Law
A class action lawsuit recently instituted in federal court in the Northern District of California, Hunter v. Lenovo et al., alleges that Lenovo Inc., a computer manufacturer, violated its customers’ rights by selling computers which came preinstalled with alleged spyware manufactured by Superfish Inc., another named defendant. The purported class alleges that the Superfish software monitors user activity and displays pop-up ads, among other…
The Federal Wiretap Act and the Law of Unintended Consequences
March 2, 2015
The Federal Wiretap Act and the Law of Unintended Consequences
By: Ifrah Law
The law of unintended consequences – a distant cousin of Murphy’s Law – states that the actions of human beings will always have effects that are unanticipated and unintended. The law could prove a perfect fit for recent efforts by class action counsel to rely upon the Federal Wiretap Act in lawsuits arising from adware installed on personal home computers. Take, for example, the…
Employers Running Background Checks: Top 10 Tips to Avoid Joining the Fair Credit Reporting Act Litigation “Club”
February 20, 2015
Employers Running Background Checks: Top 10 Tips to Avoid Joining the Fair Credit Reporting Act Litigation “Club”
By: Michelle Cohen
What do Whole Foods, Chuck E. Cheese, Michael’s Stores, Dollar General, Panera, Publix, and K-Mart have in common? Each of these companies has faced lawsuits (including class actions) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). Although Congress passed the FCRA way back in 1970 and litigation has focused on credit reporting agencies’ duties under the law, class action plaintiff firms have recently focused on…
