Business Blog

You’ve probably heard about the ransomware attack affecting organizations’ computer systems around the world. Here’s the best thing your company can do to avoid it: Update your operating system and other software. Now.

When scammers and hackers attack small businesses, it hurts not only the businesses’ reputations and bottom line, but also the integrity of the marketplace. Today, FTC Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen announced a new FTC website, FTC.gov/SmallBusiness, to help business owners avoid scams, protect their computers and networks, and keep their customers’ and employees’ data safe.

Here’s the thing about robots. Whether it’s Astro Boy, C-3PO, Optimus Prime, or Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, variations on the technology are often out there. The same could be said for robots’ less popular cousins, robocalls. A recent opinion from a United States District Court discusses the FTC’s Robocall Rule and serves as a reminder for telemarketers to mark May 19, 2017, on their calendars.

As any golfer will tell you, consistent follow-through is essential. And when the FTC files a lawsuit to protect consumers, the agency is in it for 18 holes – and a play-off, if necessary. Filed as part of Operation TELE-PHONEY, a nationwide crackdown on deceptive telemarketing, the FTC sued Publishers Business Services in 2008.

Silence may be golden, but not when it comes to contract clauses that would muzzle consumer complaints. That’s one message from an FTC settlement with the makers of NutriMost weight-loss products. Here’s another: don’t make weight-loss claims without scientific evidence to back them.

You often hear the FTC described as America’s top cop on the privacy beat. We’re not the only agency working on privacy and data security issues, of course, but we have the broadest jurisdiction. And for more than 20 years, we have used it thoughtfully and forcefully to protect consumers even as new products and services emerge and evolve.

Commercial cross-border data flows continue to grow in our internet-enabled economy. These data flows, often involving personal data, support innovative new business services and consumer products. At the same time, they raise questions of how to protect privacy across borders. Various mechanisms help both businesses and consumers with this challenge. One in which the FTC plays a key role is the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.

In the 80s, the appropriately-named group The Cars asked the musical question, “Who’s gonna drive you home?” The FTC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are hosting a workshop on June 28, 2017, to examine the consumer privacy and security implications of automated and connected motor vehicles. The questions won’t be of the musical variety, but we have a list of them and welcome your input.

An FTC lawsuit has put the brakes on a debt collection operation that the agency says used deception to collect traffic tickets, court fines, and other municipal debts for more than 300 local governments in eight Southern and Midwestern states.