The FTC reached a settlement with ad network Epic Marketplace...
The FTC reached a settlement with ad network Epic Marketplace over claims that the company has been “history sniffing,” or using technology to “collect data about sites outside its network that consumers had visited,” in violation of its privacy policy,…
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the FTC said (http://xrl.us/bn4ywj). The agency’s complaint claims that, through deceptive history sniffing, the company was able “to determine whether a consumer had visited any of more than 54,000 domains, including pages relating to fertility issues, impotence, menopause, incontinence, disability insurance, credit repair, debt relief, and personal bankruptcy,” contrary to its privacy policy, which said it would only collect data when consumers visited any of the 45,000 sites in Epic’s network, according to the agency. Epic then assigned the consumer with an interest category, such as “Incontinence,” “Arthritis” and “Pregnancy-Fertility Getting Pregnant,” and targeted ads to consumers based on their assigned interest category. The settlement requires Epic to cease its use of data sniffing technology and delete any consumer data it obtained through that technology, the FTC said. “Consumers searching the Internet shouldn’t have to worry about whether someone is going to go sniffing through the sensitive, personal details of their browsing history without their knowledge,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. The commissioners voted unanimously to accept the consent agreement package, which will be open for public comment through Jan. 7.