MilConsumer Blog Feed

If there were a bingo board that included just about every privacy and data security issue on the minds of consumers, academics, businesses, and government agencies, the FTC’s eight annual PrivacyCon would be a winner. Take a look at the just-announced agenda and clear your calendar for March 6, 2024, to hear what experts have to say about the latest research and trends.

Ever spend hours (and hours) inputting complicated financial information online only have it deleted? It’s frustrating enough when it’s due to a technical glitch, but according to an FTC complaint against tax preparer H&R Block, wiping out consumers’ already keyed-in tax data was an intentional sales tactic the company used to pressure people to pay for pricier products. Read on to learn more about H&R Block’s conduct that the FTC alleges is, well, taxing – and deceptive and unfair – to consumers.

When uttered by a pirate, “Avast!” is a nautical term for “Listen up and cut it out.” And when the FTC says “Avast!” to software company Avast, it means the same thing. UK-based Avast Limited told consumers that using its software would protect their privacy by preventing the tracking and collection of their browser information. But according to the FTC, from 2014 to 2020, guess who was tracking consumers’ browser information and then selling it to more than 100 other companies through an affiliate called Jumpshot? Ironically enough, Avast Limited. We’re not sure how much the $16.5 million financial remedy is in doubloons, but we hope the terms of the proposed settlement will remind other companies to relegate conduct like that to Davy Jones’ Locker.

The Bureau of Consumer Protection welcomes an open dialogue with parties cooperating with its investigations. Such dialogue allows the Bureau to make more informed decisions on whether to recommend an enforcement action and, if so, whether such an action can be resolved without the need for protracted litigation. But the Bureau is also mindful that delays in our investigations can undermine the public interest by allowing lawbreaking to continue and by depriving consumers of redress for harms they have suffered. As such, today we are making clear that while substantive engagement is welcome and constructive, we are prepared to pivot more quickly to litigation if undue delay comes at the expense of redress for consumers.

Small businesses are the engines that drive the American economy and capital is the fuel that propels them forward. So when fast-talking operators target small businesses with deceptive or unfair tactics, the FTC takes action. Following a January 2024 jury trial, a federal court entered a judgment requiring merchant cash advance company owner Jonathan Braun to pay $20.3 million in monetary relief and civil penalties for misleading small businesses and unlawfully seizing their assets. Read on for some staggering examples of what the court described as Braun’s “lack of remorse for his blatantly illegal conduct.”

To turn the old adage on its head, imitation is the insincerest form of falsity. After years of fighting back against scammers who impersonate government agencies and companies, the FTC proposed a Trade Regulation Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses. The Rule would allow the FTC to recover consumer redress from impersonators or to seek civil penalties against those who violate the Rule. After a painstaking process of considering...

You may have heard that “data is the new oil”—in other words, data is the critical raw material that drives innovation in tech and business, and like oil, it must be collected at a massive scale and then refined in order to be useful. And there is perhaps no data refinery as large-capacity and as data-hungry as AI. Companies developing AI products, as we have noted , possess a continuous appetite for more and newer data, and they may find that...

"I've had the blues, the reds, and the pinks. One thing’s for sure: Love stinks." Far be it from us to criticize love on Valentine’s Day, but “Love Stinks” – the 80s hit by the J. Geils Band – describes what the FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book tells us about the injury inflicted by romance scammers. And one statistic is particularly surprising.

The FTC just issued its 2023 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book jam-packed with facts about the kind of scams consumers have reported to us. Has the reported dollar amount lost to fraud gone up or down this year? And what are the most frequently reported scams? At this point you may ask, “I run a lawful business. Why should it matter to me?” Two reasons. First, scammers have you, your company, and your community in their sights and the Data Book can help you defend against emerging fraud trends. Second, scammers often try to mask their illegal intent by hiding behind legitimate businesses. For companies that work hard to maintain their good reputation, it’s not enough not to be a scammer. You also don’t want to be “scam-adjacent.”

At the FTC’s Tech Summit on Artificial Intelligence, Chair Khan previewed how the FTC is using its experience and expertise to establish rules of the road for AI. In her remarks , she noted that “as we continue this work, a few key principles come to mind. "First, we are focused on scrutinizing any existing or emerging bottlenecks across the AI stack. History shows that firms that capture control over key inputs or distribution channels can use...