Tag: consumer privacy

Did someone share, or threaten to share, an intimate photo or video of you without your permission? Did this happen to your child? If that’s happened to you or someone you know, here’s information to help you decide what to do.

Having someone share an intimate photo or video of you online without your consent can be stressful and overwhelming. These images, including AI-generated deepfakes, can spread quickly and cause real and lasting harm. That’s why Congress passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act—and why the FTC is holding platforms accountable under the law.

It’s a good day for any federal or state government agency when they can say kids are safer, and today is that day for the Federal Trade Commission and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. Together, they announced a settlement with Aylo, a collection of companies managing more than 100 porn sites (including Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube) over their distribution of child sex abuse materials, as well as non-consensual images and video.

If you bought antivirus software from Avast between August 2014 and January 2020, you could be eligible for a payment from a recent settlement in the FTC’s lawsuit. Start by checking your inbox for an email about how to submit your claim by June 5, 2025.

Health and wellness websites and apps collect a lot of personal and sensitive health information about their users. And they might make promises about how they’ll use and protect that data. If companies don’t honor those promises, it can lead to a serious breach of trust — and a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission.

Software provider Avast sold products to people that were supposed to protect their privacy online. But in a recently settled lawsuit, the FTC says Avast’s business practices actually compromised consumers’ privacy and broke the law.

Websites and online services that are directed to, or know they’re collecting information from, children under 13 are required by law to notify the parents directly and get their permission before they collect that child’s information. The FTC says Microsoft’s Xbox Live failed to do so.

Before the days of internet-connected devices, the worst that could come from a ring of your doorbell was often an unexpected sales pitch, or neighborhood pranksters ringing and running. But as video doorbells become ubiquitous, a different kind of trouble could come knocking: people spying on you or hacking into your private videos.

If you’re trying to become pregnant, you might be looking for an easy way to track your fertility and ovulation. But you probably aren’t looking for that information to get shared without your permission. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to users of pregnancy app Premom Ovulation Tracker.