Author: chris

Behold the newest self-regulatory group, the “Coalition for Better Ads,” which claims that it will, “improve consumers’ experience with online advertising. The Coalition for Better Ads will leverage consumer insights and cross-industry expertise to develop and implement new global standards for online advertising that address consumer expectations.” How? They will: Create consumer-based, data-driven standards that…

[fusion_testimonials design=”classic” backgroundcolor=”” textcolor=”” random=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””][fusion_testimonial name=”Daniel J. Solove” avatar=”none” image=”” image_border_radius=”” company=”John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law, George Washington University, Washington DC” link=”” target=”_self”] “Chris Hoofnagle has written the definitive book about the FTC’s involvement in privacy and security. This is a deep, thorough, erudite, clear, and insightful work – one…

I am honored and delighted to have my book reviewed by EUI’s Bilyana Petkova, who wrote in part: …the work of Hoofnagle stands out by offering both a welcome description of the applicable law and a broad contextual framework…Chris J. Hoofnagle takes over fifteen years of experience in American consumer protection, information, and privacy law…

In LifeLock, the FTC alleged that the company “failed to establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program…” as required by a 2010 order. Lifelock settled the case for over $100M, despite the fact that the company claimed it had a clean bill of health from a reputable third party PCI assessor, and according to…

Few have shed as much light on data science than Cathy O’Neil. The former Barnard math professor, author of Doing Data Science, and hedge fund quant has now published Weapons of Math Destruction (Crown 2016). Weapons of Math Destruction (WMDs) are perversions of data science that increasingly influence our lives. O’Neil shows how sloppy mathematical…

I am so delighted with Joshua Cohen’s Book of Numbers that here I’ve picked out my favorite neologisms from the work (earlier post on the book here). Adverks sales: The industrial activity of advertising—onvertising, online advertising Recs, rectards, rectarded, recy: One of the most colorful and widely used descriptors in the book. Techs are sophisticated…

Bloomberg reports, FTC to Crack Down on Paid Celebrity Posts That Aren’t Clear Ads. Yes, the FTC is saber-rattling on this issue, with its native ads workshop, statements on the issue, and enforcement actions. And the media coverage runs into the same old arguments.  First, “we didn’t intend to mislead.” We’re venturing into a little…

I have a few friends working at major technology companies who share a similar story—they describe meetings with the founder, always an eccentric, Delphic, creature who gives feedback that is rushed and difficult to understand. The group huddles after meeting with the oracle, attempting to decode his meaning. Some hilarity ensues. Someone among the group…

Much of my book is available free or at low cost. The lowest cost option for purchasing is Google Play, which sells it for only $20. You can read the print book free at over 115 academic libraries. If you are a faculty member or student at an academic institution, you might have a subscription…

Dan Lyons’ Disrupted, the tell all about a prominent journalist’s experience working at Hubspot, a marketing company, is a train-wreck of a read. I could not put it down and have accomplished little work this week as a result 🙂 Lyons details a hundred examples of plain naïveté and pathology within the company. Lyons comes…

Here’s another example of the FTC’s dynamism and innovation—sometime in the early 1970s, it created radio spots to inform consumers of various marketplace problems. This album, titled, Shop Wisely Think Before You Buy, includes tracks (listen below) from: Shirley Jones, Leonard Nimoy, Karen Valentine, Sebastian Cabot, Burt Reynolds, Clu Gulager, Carol Burnett, Lloyd Haynes, and…

Here’s something you may not know: every time you go to Facebook or ESPN.com or wherever, you’re unleashing a mad scramble of money, data, and pixels that involves undersea fiber-optic cables, the world’s best database technologies, and everything that is known about you by greedy strangers. Every. Single. Time. The Federal Trade Commission staff recently…