Mobile Developer Settles With FTC Over Background-Check App
- by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 14, 2013
Two Minnesota companies have agreed
to take steps to ensure the accuracy of their reports in order to settle charges that their mobile background-check apps violated federal consumer protection laws.
Filiquarian Publishing allegedly sold apps for 99 cents that allowed consumers to run criminal background checks on other people, the Federal Trade Commission alleges in a complaint made public last week. A related company, Choice Level, allegedly furnished the criminal records. Between 2010 and last May, Filiquarian allegedly sold nearly 7,000 copies of the background-check apps on iTunes and GooglePlay.
The FTC charged Filiquarian and Choice Level with violating the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which sets out procedures for companies that supply reports for employment, insurance, housing and credit applications. The law says that credit reporting agencies must take steps to ensure the accuracy of their report, and provides that consumers have the right to challenge information in reports.
The law also prohibits credit reporting bureaus from furnishing data unless the recipients intend to use it to make decisions about specific matters -- including housing, employment and credit applications.
Filiquarian and Choice Level "did not comply with" that law, the FTC alleges. The companies "regularly" provided reports without first finding out whether the recipients had a legitimate purpose. They also allegedly failed to vet their reports for accuracy. Both companies were owned by Joshua Linsk, according to the FTC's complaint.
The companies, which did not admit wrongdoing, agreed that they will not provide consumer reports unless recipients intend to use the information to assess applications for housing, employment, credit or other specific purposes.
The companies also agreed that they will "maintain reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy" of information.
The charges against Filiquarian and Choice Level come about one year after the FTC warned data brokers that their mobile apps must comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act -- even when their Web sites have disclaimers saying that the reports shouldn't be used for decisions about housing, employment or credit.
Last year, the FTC settled with Web company Spokeo, which agreed to pay $800,000 to resolve charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by selling information about job applicants to prospective employers without first taking steps to ensure the information is accurate.
Microsoft Relaunches Skype, Adds Highlights Video Feature
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, June 1, 2017
With Facebook and other rivals offering better video communication tools, Skype was in serious need of a reboot.
The Microsoft-owned service relaunched on Thursday with several new features, including one that closely resembles Snapchat Stories.
Dubbed Highlights, the Stories clone encourages users to create a “highlight reel” of their day with photos and videos -- with the intention of sharing them with friends and family. After people post a highlight, their connections can react to it with emoticons or text.
Revolving around a new “Find” panel -- for easier searching -- the entire Skye interface can now be customized to reflect users’ favorite colors.
Going big on bots, Skype will also be more closely linked to services like Stubhub, BigOven and Expedia. Users will be able pull ticket pricing and seating options directly into theirs chat; find a good cookie recipe; and check flight times and pricing for an upcoming trip.
At launch, the new Skype is only available to users of the Android mobile operating system. Support for Apple’s iOS is expected in a matter of weeks, while desktop support is slated for later this year.
Of course, Microsoft is not new to the bot game. By late last year, more than 45,000 developers were already using its Bot Framework, according< /a> to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
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Pizza Hut Scores With Yahoo Sports Game Partnership
- by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, June 2, 2017
Partnering with Yahoo on branded bracket games around two major sports events this year paid off in millions of online orders for Pizza Hut, the fast-food brand reports.
In fact, the games, combined with Yahoo marketing campaigns, resulted in Pizza Hut’s three biggest-ever digital transaction days.
Pizza Hut had set a record for online orders during 2016’s Super Bowl, and the brand wanted to build on that in 2017.
Yahoo and Pizza Hut collaborated to launch Squares Pick’em, the first digital game of its kind on Yahoo Sports, to engage fans before and during the 2017 Super Bowl.
After signing up, users invited friends to pick Pizza Hut-themed boxes on a 10 x 10 grid. Each square represented a possible score at the end of every quarter of the game. The winners weren’t offered any big prizes; they were motivated simply by the chance to be able to brag about their picks.
Pizza Hut continuously engaged fans, offering promotions for online orders using advertising on the Yahoo homepage and Yahoo Sports, as well as extensive native, display, search and email advertising.
Fans spent more than 9 million minutes playing Yahoo’s Squares Pick'em around the Big Game, and 70% of consumers accessed the game on their mobile devices or tablets.
Based on the success in converting that Super Bowl bracket-game engagement to orders on PizzaHut.com (Pizza Hut isn’t revealing the exact numbers of transactions), the brand went on to sponsor Yahoo Sports’ Tourney Pick'em — a bracket challenge on the Yahoo Fantasy app and desktop experience timed for the Men’s NCAA Tournament.
“Sports fans are looking for new ways to take part in the biggest sporting events of the year,” David Daniels, Pizza Hut’s VP of advertising and media, notes to Marketing Daily. “Working with Yahoo to make the viewing experience more interactive let us reach highly engaged fans who are ready to eat Pizza Hut pizza wherever they’re watching the games.”
Google Android Security's Top Bug Reward Payout Goes Unpaid
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, June 1, 2017
Google did pay 115 individuals with an average of $2,150 per reward and $10,209 per researcher. The top research team, Core Team, got over $300,000 for 118 vulnerabilities reports. The company also paid 31 researchers $10,000 or more.
Overall, there were more than 450 qualifying vulnerability reports from researchers, and the average pay per researcher rose by 52.3%. The total Android Security Rewards payout doubled to $1.1 million dollars.
Since the rewards program launched, Google has rewarded researchers more than $1.5 million dollars.
Perhaps Google is getting better at protecting Android users. Apparently, no researchers have claimed the top reward for an exploit chain in two years. Each Android release gains more security protection.
In March 2017, Google released the Android Security 2016 Year In Review report -- which details how it keeps at the present time, 1.4 billion devices running on the operating system safe. The report says that in 2016, more than 100 security researchers made public contributions to the security of Android, for a total of nearly $1 million in security rewards.
