With Complaints Against Facebook Piling Up, FTC Goes After Small Businesses

June 14, 2019

The FTC today announced a minor settlement with a company called SecurTest over its claims concerning the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program. The Commission also sent letters to 13 small companies for falsely claiming participation in various privacy programs. The FTC issued no fines and took no further action. The proposed consent agreement is subject to public comment after publication in the Federal Register. The announcement comes more than a year after the Commission said it would reopen the investigation of Facebook, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Earlier this year, an EPIC Freedom of Information Act request uncovered more than 26,000 complaints against Facebook pending at the Commission. EPIC brought the original complaint to the FTC in 2009 that led to the 2011 consent order. EPIC has repeatedly urged the FTC to #EnforceTheOrder against Facebook.

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