The details of a Patent that was applied for by Facebook back in 2012 have just gone public, and may be the latest clue that the social network may be looking to open up membership to children under 13 years old. The site has long prevented kids from joining due to a variety of regulations … Read more
Back in February when Facebook announced that they intended to purchase the mobile messaging service, WhatsApp, for $19 Billion, it made big news. Once they got approval from the FTC here in the US, most people expected it would be a done deal. Facebook has surprised many people, however, in that they requested that the … Read more
Six major affiliates that promoted online poker sites have received a letter from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement instructing them to ‘immediately remove any online gaming links that are not authorized under federal law or under the law of any state.” If they fail to remove these links, they will be subject prosecution … Read more
Google is very familiar with all sorts of criticisms regarding the dominance of their business from countries throughout the European Union. They have had to pay fines, go to courts, and a wide range of other activities in order to defend themselves. According to a German cabinet minister, however, that is not quite enough. Sigmar … Read more
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled last week that Google and other search engines can be required to delete links to outdated information concerning individuals published on the Internet. The court case will force Google to comply with any European citizens that request to be ‘forgotten’ by search engines. The citizens can … Read more
A new lawsuit was filed this last Tuesday against Google, alleging that the company is engaging in fraudulent activity. Specifically, it suggests that Google is canceling AdSense accounts just before they were scheduled to receive a payment. According to Google’s terms of service, if an AdSense account gets suspended, the earnings are forfeited. The case … Read more
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is being sued by a real estate developer, Mircea Voskerician. The developer claims that Zuckerberg promised to provide introductions and referrals to the developer, in exchange for the rights to buy a property located behind his home. The developer was planning to build a home on the land, which he had … Read more
In what seems to be an ongoing battle against Google in Europe, there has been another attack. This time, Germany is demanding that Google change what they do with the personal data they collect across Google platforms. According to Johannes Casper, who heads the data protection office for the German state of Hamburg, “By compiling … Read more
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Riley v. California case last week, and in them, the privacy settings of Facebook were discussed. The case involves a San Diego college student, David Riley. He was pulled over for driving on expired tags, when the police seized his phone. They went through the phone, finding … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission Act provides the FTC with the authority to enforce unfair or deceptive practices, and seek relief for ‘conduct injurious to consumers.’ This has been going on for quite some time, and while controversial in some circles, it has gone largely unchallenged. Recently, however, the FTC has begun to test their authority … Read more
Google is being sued in federal court in San Jose, California on a case that claims Google is violating monopoly laws in their Android OS App tie-ins. Google requires manufacturers, such as Samsung, use less popular applications if they want to include apps like YouTube. The suit claims that this requirement is “designed to maintain … Read more
Super Affiliate Shawn Hogan Sentenced to Federal Prison As Mal Campbell reported in his blog InternetCodex this morning, and as I predicted last May, Shawn Hogan has been sentenced to 6 months in Federal Prison for his participating in a cookie stuffing scam against eBay that netted over $28 Million. According to federal documents, that … Read more
The issue of net neutrality has been largely pushed to the back burners for several months, but according to a recent story in businessweek, that may be changing very soon. The story stated that “A U.S. regulator is considering letting Internet-service providers negotiate payments from companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. for access to … Read more
Regulatory sweeps in the digital marketing industry are inevitable. The following is specifically meant to address a few things that you should know if you are the unfortunate subject of an enforcement action initiated by the Federal Trade Commission (the “Commission”) relating to allegations of deceptive advertising. “Kick-off” usually takes the form of your business being ransacked, … Read more