Google announced last year they were offering an opt out option in their Chrome browser. Now they have given it a name “Keep Mt Opt-Outs” and are trying to get more momentum for their effort to appease the FTC.
As Google states: “Recently, the Federal Trade Commission and others have expressed interest in a “Do Not Track” mechanism that could offer users a simple way to opt out of personalized advertising. Advertising companies that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) already let you opt out of tracking for the purposes of personalizing advertisements, and many online advertisers and trade associations have also joined a major self-regulatory effort to enforce a uniform privacy icon for ads, as well as opt-out guidelines.”
Ripples In The Golden Pond. Apple’s recent honeymoon seems to be short-lived with reports of regulatory scrutiny coming from the Department of Justice and from the Federal Trade Commission on various grounds. The issues at hand: Adobe, music and videos as well as mobile ads.
Honeymoon Period
Last week was indeed a turning point for Apple in many ways.
First, On May 26th, it officially became the biggest technology company, topping the Nasdaq with a $222 billion market capitalization, overtaking Microsoft and standing as number 2 of all U.S. companies right behind Exxon Mobil.
After acknowledging it has been snooping and collecting private data through its Street View cars, it has been brought to our attention that Google is now facing a class action lawsuit in Washington state and Oregon for privacy violation.
The plaintiffs, Vicki Van Valin and Neil Mertz, claim that their privacy was violated and they request a preliminary and permanent injunction for such data collected by Google to not be destroyed as it represents critical evidence, TechEye reported.
According to TechEye, the filing also asks for punitive damages.
According to a story by Thomas Catan and Jessica E. Vascellaro of The Wall Street Journal, “The Federal Trade Commission appears to be laying the groundwork for an antitrust challenge to Google Inc.’s proposed purchase of mobile-advertising company AdMob.”
Image via CrunchBase
According to their story, “Regulator Concerned By Google Ad Deal,” the FTC has assembled an internal litigation team to prepare for a possible effort to block the deal. The FTC also sent letters to AdMob’s competitors asking them to testify in sworn statements about the potential impact of the purchase. In addition, the agency has briefed Congress on its concerns about the deal.
Arthur Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, has resigned Google’s Board of Directors. Levinson had been on the board for five years.
“Working with Eric, Larry, Sergey and the whole Google team has been a remarkable experience for me. I greatly admire what they’ve built and have no doubt that Google has a terrific future,” said Levinson.
Levinson is also on the Board of Directors at Apple. The FTC has been Apple’s Board.
If you are a blogger in the US your life is about to change big-time.
You have just entered the Twilight Zone…
New FTC guidelines (read full version) described in the official press release state:
1 – “the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”
and
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued new regulations regarding blogger endorsements and word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. If a blogger is paid to do a review – either through money or product/service – said blogger must reveal said payment.
Ever been annoyed by posts in message boards that ended up being written by a company employee? The new guidelines crack down on such behavior as well.
The word-of-mouth guidelines don’t just extend to employees. They involve anyone who has signed up for a word-of-mouth marketing program, such as a Street Team.
Microsoft has teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and Western Union to serve consumer protection PSAs in Bing’s search ads. The new ads address scams involving mortgages, foreclosure, credit repair and money transfers.
Some of the keywords included in the PSA effort are:
- foreclosure rescue
- mortgage foreclosure
- fix my credit
- credit repair
- money transfer
When a searcher clicks on one of the PSA search ads, they will see a landing page with warnings about scams related to the keyword. The FTC hosts the landing pages for credit repair and mortgage foreclosure while a landing page for avoiding advanced fee fraud is hosted by Microsoft.
