The FTC has reached a settlement with Flo, a period and fertility tracking app with 100 million+ users, over allegations it shared users’ health data with third-party app analytics and marketing services like Facebook despite promising to keep users’ sensitive health data private. Flo must obtain an independent review of its privacy practices and obtain […]
Share
Period and fertility-tracking-app maker Flo Health has settled with the Federal Trade Commission regarding a complaint alleging improper disclosure of sensitive user data to third-party marketing and analytics services from Facebook, Google and others, the agency announced today.
The FTC s complaint listed several ways in which Flo deceived its users. These included messaging from the company that it would not share information regarding . marked cycles, pregnancy, symptoms [and] notes to any third parties or other health data to certain types of third parties.
The app-maker also allegedly violated the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks, each of which includes consumer protections for personal data transfer to third parties.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
An oft-used business management concept is to “hire people smarter than you.” The concept also applies to hiring vendors – hire vendors that are
better than you (especially when it comes to information security). Texas-based Ascension Data & Analytics LLC (Ascension), a technology and data analytics company used by the mortgage industry, did not utilize that concept in its vendor hiring process, and as a result, recently entered into a proposed settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) following charges that it violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (GLBA) Safeguards Rule by failing to ensure that its third-party vendor adequately protected mortgage holder personal information.
By Jaclyn Jaeger2021-01-12T17:28:00+00:00
Consumer protection initiatives are expected to be a major area of focus for President-elect Joe Biden, who is widely anticipated to breathe new life into the enforcement priorities of federal and state agencies with such powers.
“[The CFPB] is a very big dog, and by all indications it’s about to get a much longer leash. This agency is about to become more robust in terms of its supervisory agenda and its enforcement agenda.”
Elizabeth Papez, Partner, Gibson Dunn
“There is undoubtedly going to be increased focus on privacy and consumer protection issues to come,” Gibson Dunn Partner Alexander Southwell said on a Jan. 7 Webcast discussing the Biden administration’s anticipated consumer protection agenda. “This will be an era of aggressive enforcement on the federal level, but frankly also on the state level.”