The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began distributing more than $5 million in refunds to Amazon Ring customers Tuesday, enforcing a settlement with the tech giant over claims that Ring failed to protect consumer privacy. The FTC claimed in a 2023 complaint that Ring allowed employees and contractors improper access to records from the company’s security … Read more
More US workers will soon be free to leave their employers to work for rivals, thanks to a new federal rule that will block the longstanding practice of locking in workers with noncompete agreements. The US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday issued a final rule that bans most noncompetes nationwide. The agency estimated that by … Read more
The cyberattack on Change Healthcare in February targeted the data of “a substantial proportion of people in America,” UnitedHealth Group (UHG) said this week, with the company confirming it paid a ransom in an effort to protect patient information. “Based on initial targeted data sampling to date, the company has found files containing protected health … Read more
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized TurboTax on Monday for charging taxpayers for relatively simple tax returns and repeatedly upselling them during the filing process. Ahead of Monday night’s tax deadline, Warren pointed to an example of a sample taxpayer with a “simple filing situation” who would qualify for the IRS’s new Direct File tool, which … Read more
Meta asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust case against the social media giant, arguing that the agency failed to prove that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp harmed consumers. “From the very beginning, the FTC has failed to state a plausible claim, and the agency has done … Read more
Comedian Jon Stewart said Monday that Apple wouldn’t let him interview Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan for his former podcast. “I gotta tell you, I wanted to have you on a podcast, and Apple asked us not to do it,” Stewart said during an interview with Khan on “The Daily Show.” “They literally … Read more
The US Department of Justice had long been expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. But when the suit arrived Thursday, it came with surprising ferocity. In a press conference, attorney general Merrick Garland noted that Apple controlled more than 70 percent of the country’s smartphone market, saying the company used that outsized power … Read more
Reddit said ahead of its IPO next week that licensing user posts to Google and others for AI projects could bring in $203 million of revenue over the next few years. The community-driven platform was forced to disclose Friday that US regulators already have questions about that new line of business. In a regulatory filing, … Read more
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan issued a warning on scam tactics in the wake of a viral column from New York Magazine’s The Cut. “Being the victim of a scam can be devastating,” Khan said in her thread. “A reminder that nobody from @FTC will ever give you a badge number, ask you … Read more
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is calling on federal regulators to scrutinize a location data broker amid its bankruptcy proceedings, saying he’s concerned over its ownership of data showing people visiting sensitive places like reproductive health clinics. Wyden addressed the FTC and the SEC in a letter on Tuesday as part of his ongoing investigation into … Read more
