Researchers from Northeastern University and Consumer Reports analyzed 21 late-model vehicles from 19 automakers and 30 companion apps to examine how connected cars collect and transmit driver data. The study, led by David Choffnes, examined where data goes, whether it crosses international borders, and what personally identifiable information gets exposed. It follows the FTC's 2024 penalty against General Motors for selling location and driving data without consent, and smaller fines against Ford and Honda over opt-out difficulties.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-29
A wave of phishing emails impersonating invitation platforms like Paperless Post and Evite has been spreading contacts' names to trick recipients into entering email or phone credentials to view fake event details. Journalist Eric Umansky was among early victims, waking to messages asking about a party he never planned, despite having two-factor authentication enabled on his account. The FTC issued a consumer alert in May after receiving a rise in reports of the scam.
wired.com
· 2026-09-25
The FTC banned General Motors for five years from selling customer driving data to consumer reporting agencies after finding the automaker had collected details like speeding and nighttime driving through its OnStar Smart Driver feature and passed them to data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk, which serve insurers. Many drivers say they didn't realize they had consented to this tracking, and some reported their insurance rates rose as a result. Research from the Mozilla Foundation found nearly every major automaker has similarly weak privacy protections and overlapping, confusing consent policies for vehicle data.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-13
The FTC and attorneys general from 22 states filed suit against Amazon, alleging the company secretly altered its ad-auction pricing after bids closed, extracting over $20 billion in extra charges from roughly 1.2 million advertisers since 2018. The complaint centers on a 'soft reserve' mechanism that reportedly raised final prices on Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display placements beyond the standard second-price model, with heavier markups during peak shopping periods like the holidays. Amazon has rejected the allegations, saying the government misunderstands how advertisers set bidding strategy.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-02
The FTC and a bipartisan coalition of 22 states have sued Amazon, claiming it secretly manipulated its advertising auctions to charge advertisers more than they should have paid under the stated 'second price' bidding rules. The complaint alleges Amazon pocketed roughly $20 billion since 2019 by making Sponsored Products advertisers pay their full winning bid nearly 80% of the time instead of one cent above the next-highest bid. Amazon has called the lawsuit 'misguided' and denies misleading advertisers or consumers.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-08-31
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by 22 state attorneys general, filed suit against Amazon alleging it covertly altered its ad auction rules starting in 2019 to overcharge advertisers by more than $20 billion. The complaint targets Amazon's sponsored products, brand, and display ads, claiming the company misrepresented its 'second-price' auction system while quietly adding surcharges. Amazon has rejected the allegations, calling the lawsuit misguided and saying its auction changes actually saved advertisers billions.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-31
The EU has enacted the AI Act, a roughly 50,000-word, 113-article law representing the first comprehensive AI regulation worldwide. The U.S., by contrast, has no federal AI law, instead relying on executive orders, agency guidance from bodies like NIST and the FTC, and a rapidly growing number of state laws, which more than doubled from 49 in 2023 to 131 in 2024.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-25
The U.S. Department of Justice settled its lawsuit against TikTok, ByteDance and affiliated companies for $400 million over repeated violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The suit, filed in 2024, alleged TikTok let children under 13 create standard accounts outside its restricted Kids Mode, collected their data without parental consent, and failed to delete accounts when parents requested it. TikTok will pay $300 million immediately, with an additional $100 million due if a court vacates an earlier 2019 consent decree tied to its predecessor app, Musical.ly.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-08-24
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