Federal Trade Commission

I am pleased to see progress on this important matter. The Federal Trade Commission has long applied its competition and consumer protection expertise to network neutrality issues. The FTC also participated in the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding, and I am gratified that my comments and those of FTC staff appear to have been taken into consideration in the development of this order. I look forward to reading the full draft order.

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.

How can you keep up to date on what’s up on our beat? Once a year, we release our Privacy and Security Update. The latest update for 2016 and updates for 2015, 2014, and 2013 tell you where we’ve been on behalf of America’s consumers – and where we’re going. What these updates demonstrate is that even as technology and the privacy landscape evolve, our interest remains constant: to protect consumers’ personal information and ensure that they can confidently take advantage of the many benefits offered by a vibrant and innovative marketplace.

The Federal Trade Commission and Amazon have agreed to end appeals related to 2016’s court findings that the company billed consumers for unauthorized in-app charges incurred by children, paving the way for affected consumers to seek refunds from the online retailer shortly. A federal district court found in April 2016 that Amazon billed consumers for unauthorized in-app charges incurred by children using mobile apps such as online games downloaded through the company’s app store. The court found that Amazon failed to get parents’ consent for in-app charges made by their children. In that same ruling, the court also denied the FTC’s request for an injunction that would have forbidden Amazon from similar conduct in the future.

The FTC appealed the denial of the injunction, and Amazon then cross-appealed the court’s ruling that the company had violated the law. The district court stayed its order requiring Amazon to begin offering refunds to injured consumers while the appeals were pending. The decision by the FTC and Amazon to end their litigation will allow the refund process to begin shortly. More than $70 million in in-app charges made between November 2011 and May 2016 may be eligible for refunds. Details on the refund program, which Amazon will operate, will be announced shortly.

In a study released March 3, the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Technology Research and Investigation (OTech) reports that most major online businesses are using proper email authentication technology to prevent phishing e-mails, but few of these businesses are taking full advantage of the latest technologies to combat phishing.

Phishing is a type of online scam that targets consumers by sending them an e-mail that appears to be from a well-known source such as an internet service provider, a bank, or a mortgage company. It asks the consumer to provide personal identifying information, and then the scammer uses the information to open new accounts or invade the consumer’s existing accounts.

Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen announced that she has appointed Thomas Pahl, a partner at the Washington, DC law firm of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, to be the Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Pahl is rejoining the FTC, having served in a number of different roles starting in 1990, including management stints in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection as Assistant Director in the Division of Advertising Practices and the Division of Financial Practices. He also advised top agency officials on consumer protection matters.

For three years, he advised Reagan appointee and FTC Commissioner Mary Azcuenaga. And he later served for four years as an attorney advisor for Republican FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle. Pahl previously served a detail to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Chairman Orrin Hatch, focusing on antitrust and consumer privacy issues. Pahl also has worked as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, and is a member of the Federalist Society. More recently, Pahl has worked on consumer financial protection issues (especially credit reporting and debt collection issues) as a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, and on debt collection issues at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Trade Commission is mailing refund checks totaling nearly $20 million to more than 617,000 T-Mobile customers who had third-party charges added to their mobile bills. These refunds are the result of a 2014 settlement with T-Mobile, which also involved all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the Federal Communications Commission.

As part of the settlement, T-Mobile agreed to fully refund unwanted third-party charges to its customers who applied for a refund. The company also agreed to remit to the FTC any remaining funds up to $90 million that were not distributed under the order. The FTC is using the remaining settlement money to send checks to customers who had third-party charges placed on their bills but did not participate in T-Mobile’s refund program. The average check amount is $32. Recipients should deposit or cash checks within 60 days.

President Donald Trump has designated Maureen K. Ohlhausen as Acting Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission by a White House order. Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 4, 2012, to a term that expires in September 2018.

Prior to joining the Commission, Ohlhausen was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where she headed the firm’s FTC practice focusing on privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity matters. Ohlhausen previously served at the FTC for 11 years, most recently as Director of the Office of Policy Planning from 2004 to 2008, where she led the FTC's Internet Access Task Force. She was also Deputy Director of that office. From 1998 to 2001, Ohlhausen was an attorney advisor for former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle, advising him on competition and consumer protection matters. She started at the FTC General Counsel’s Office in 1997.

As consumers have come to rely on multiple devices, companies are using technologies to connect a consumer’s activity across those devices – smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and more. It’s called cross-device tracking and the Federal Trade Commission just released a staff report on the subject. Drawing on an earlier FTC workshop, the report discusses the benefits and the challenges associated with technologies that enable cross-device tracking. Here is a summary of some staff recommendations:

Transparency: FTC staff calls on anyone engaged in cross-device tracking – both cross-device tracking companies and consumer-facing entities – to truthfully disclose their tracking activities.
Choice: Companies should offer consumers choices about how their cross-device activity is tracked. It goes without saying that if consumers are told they can opt out of tracking, companies must honor that promise.
Special considerations for sensitive data: For certain categories of sensitive data – for example, health, financial, or children’s information – the staff recommends not tracking consumers without their express affirmative consent.
Security:Consistent with the message businesses have been hearing for years, the staff report recommends that companies practice good data hygiene to avoid unauthorized access, including by hackers in the case of a data breach.
Periodic reassessment of technologies and practices: FTC staff recommends that companies periodically reassess their practices as technology evolves and simplify consent choices whenever possible.