Twitter says it was just an accident that caused the microblogging giant to let advertisers use private information to better target their marketing materials at users. The social networking giant on Tuesday admitted to an "error" that let advertisers have access to the private information customers had given Twitter in order …

America's trade watchdog claims the owner of Match.com, Tinder, and other dating sites, shafted its lonely-hearts by allowing obviously bogus bot profiles to feign interest in the singletons. On Wednesday, the FTC alleged in a legal complaint that Match.com and other dating sites owned by Match group broke US law when they let …

It’s been a year since hapless credit-monitoring company Equifax admitted hackers gained access to the personal details of some 175 million people on its servers – and it has marked the anniversary with an extra legal hurdle for those seeking compensation. The credit-history collectors lost control of details, included the …

Qualcomm won’t be obliged to license key patents to its competitors – for now – after it won a stay at the Ninth Circuit. The appeals court was asked by the chipmaker to put the brakes on a number of enforced changes made after Qualcomm lost a high-profile court case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Key among …

The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have pushed back against US President Trump's proposal to put them in charge of policing social media firms he claims are biased against right-wingers. The draft executive order, titled "Protecting Americans from Online Censorship", aims to restrict the ability …

The boss of the Federal Trade Commission, Joe Simons, said yesterday that his agency could split up big technology companies if other solutions or remedies did not work. The FTC chairman said the US regulator could potentially unpick previous mergers as part of its wide-ranging probe into large tech companies. This could refer …

America's trade watchdog has officially told millions in the US not to apply for the $125 it promised each of them as part of the deal it struck with Equifax – and instead take up an offer of free credit monitoring. In a memo on Wednesday, FTC assistant director Robert Schoshinski said the regulator has been overwhelmed by …

Facebook is stronger than ever, despite the best efforts of the US government to rein it in over privacy and legal violations. The House of Zuck on Wednesday revealed gains [PDF] in revenues, daily active users, and mobile advertising in the second quarter of 2019, as it took those massive settlement fees in its stride. For …

Facebook will be asked to fork out $5bn in a settlement with America's trade watchdog, the FTC, following last year's Cambridge Analytica fiasco, it was reported Friday. The proposed deal will end an FTC probe into whether the antisocial network broke a 2012-era pledge to better protect its addicts' privacy. In 2018, Facebook …

Taiwanese networking equipment vendor D-Link will have to submit to a decade of product security audits after agreeing to settle a lawsuit brought by the US Federal Trade Commission. It has also pledged to maintain a "comprehensive software security programme" for the next 20 years, designed to make its IP cameras and routers …

One thing you can't accuse people of in Washington DC is lacking an appetite for power. But not, it seems, if that power comes with responsibility. This morning, co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes, launched a blistering but well-reasoned attack on his former company and his friend CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which he outlined why …

No less than 42 US state attorneys general have warned that the epidemic of robocalls sweeping the nation is causing serious harm to ordinary Americans. In a letter [PDF] to telecoms regulator, the FCC, the AGs note that "the explosive growth of caller ID spoofing and robocalls is being driven primarily by scams," and point …

Facebook's financial figures for its first quarter of 2019, published Wednesday, had an interesting twist. The Mark Zuckerberg-run biz set aside $3bn of its profits, effectively halving its net income, to foot an expected fine from America's trade watchdog for seemingly running roughshod over people's privacy. The size of the …

A robocalling scheme that ripped off business owners by claiming to be collecting fees on Google's behalf to improve their search engine results has been fined $3.4m. But thanks to terrible enforcement efforts by federal regulators, that fine is probably not worth the paper it's written on, With the US government's failure to …

America's trade watchdog says it will soon mull over and potentially propose rules to protect folks' right to repair their phones, tablets, and PCs, among other things, without voiding warranties or breaking the things. The FTC this week announced it was seeking research and comments from the public in advance of a workshop …

America's consumer protection watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, has created a task force to dig into whether the tech industry has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The monopoly-abuse-busters will contain more than a dozen lawyers from the FTC's Bureau of Competition, along with a technology fellow who will "provide …

Facebook is reportedly close to breaking out its checkbook to settle the FTC's legal rumblings over the antisocial network's unique approach to netizens' privacy. The tech giant, led by warm bread enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg, will cough up several billion dollars to disappear allegations it violated the privacy of its users by …

AnalysisIt's been a couple of weeks of contradictory arguments in US trade watchdog the FTC's lawsuit against chip designer Qualcomm. So perhaps it was appropriate that the whole thing ended with a meta-contradiction concerning the nature of the legal system itself. In his closing arguments for Qualcomm – which has been accused of …