FTC

FTC is the abbreviated name assigned to the Federal Trade Commission, the federal government agency charged with making sure all is fair in love and trade as relates to the American consumer. The agency was established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act to promote consumer protection and combat anti-competitive practices, such as monopolies.

More recently, the FTC has represented three letters striking fear into the hearts of bloggers everywhere, as the agency has begun to take steps towards regulating the wild, wild west world of the blogosphere.

Specifically, as of December 2009, the FTC will begin requiring full disclosure of any payments made to bloggers in exchange for product endorsements.

Such payments would include not only monetary compensation, but also products bloggers often receive for review purposes — which in theory could mean anything from cars, trips, and the like, to the CDs, DVDs, and books thousands of bloggers routinely write about at sites such as Blogcritics Magazine.

As could be expected, bloggers have a lot to say about the FTC — and you'll find them talking about it at sites like Google Blog and Huffington Post.

by Glen Boyd Are you a writer, passionate about this or any other topic? Join Blogcritics!

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “FTC”

• 2010 Packaging Trends Impacting What Consumers Will Buy

  
  Packaging News You Can Use — Authority: 109
  In this fiercely competitive environment where every element of product packaging counts it’s important to understand any external influences that might keep your consumer from buying. Packaging trends evolve with consumer’s wants and needs and sometimes they can become a primary factor in whether or not your ...
  5 hours ago

• FTC admits celebrities can blog for freebies, no disclosure needed

  
  The Inquisitr Entertainment — Authority: 700
  The FTC has hinted in an interview with Daily Finance that the rules about fairly disclosing comps in blog posts doesn’t apply to people who happen to be awash in a sea of free goodies. Yes, you, poor mommy blogger, must disclose a sample of baby wipes you didn’t pay for, but people who are important and ...
  5 hours ago

• Doing[Social]Media: Five Social Media Predictions for 2010

  
  DoingMedia — Authority: 99
  I really like the people over at SocialMediaToday. They have new, very timely post that you might like: Five Social Media Predictions for 2010 . But don’t trust me; go see for yourself. For you short attention span readers here’s a summary. Augemented reality applications will start to mainstream ...
  5 hours ago

• Gwyneth Paltrow Will Never Answer for Her E-Crimes

  
  Gawker: valleywag — Authority: 597
  Blogging her poops. Deflating Scarlet Johansson. And now, apparently, taking blog bribes that are federal crimes for the rest of us. These are but a few of Gwyneth Paltrow s transgressions, and the FTC will continue to let them happen. Paltrow, the FTC has hinted in an interview with Daily Finances Jeff ...
  8 hours ago

• Gwyneth Paltrow Will Never Answer for Her E-Crimes [Blogging For Dollars]

  
  Gawker — Authority: 837
  Blogging her poops. Deflating Scarlet Johansson. And now, apparently, taking blog bribes that are federal crimes for the rest of us. These are but a few of Gwyneth Paltrow s transgressions, and the FTC will continue to let them happen. Paltrow, the FTC has hinted in an interview with Daily Finances Jeff ...
  8 hours ago

• French solution to illegal download and copyright infringement - tax Google and Yahoo

  
  ZDNet Government — Authority: 126
  The French government commissioned a study to determine solutions to the problems of downloading copyright protected movies and music. The panels recommendation is to tax search engine companies
  9 hours ago

• FTC Joins the Blogosphere

  
  Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog — Authority: 478
  Welcome to former GovGab blogger Nicole Vincent who now works at the Federal Trade Commission. In todays guest post, shell introduce you to a brand new consumer protection blog definitely worth checking out! Longtime Gov Gab readers might remember me as the Friday blogger. It’s great to come back and visit my old ...
  16 hours ago

• FOX Near-Blackout Calls Attention to Cable Regulation

  
  JETLawBlog: The Official Blog of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law — Authority: 120
  Hell hath no fury like a Gator scorned. Last week, Fox Broadcasting Company threatened to drop its signal from Time Warner Cable and Bright House on the eve of some of the nation’s most anticipated college bowl games. Even members of Congress and the FTC were urged to get involved. Happily, the ban did not take ...
  21 hours ago

• DOJ Review of Comcast-NBCU Good for the Companies

  
  The Precursor Blog by Scott Cleland — Authority: 474
  News reports that the DOJ, and not the FTC, will conduct the antitrust review of the Comcast-NBCU deal is a very good development for the companies.  First, DOJs filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan just this week showed that the DOJ clearly understands that the cable industry is competitive and ...
  1 day ago

• Promoting Contests & Sweepstakes

  
  From The Contest Queen — Authority: 103
  At the beginning of December the FTC announced its revised guidelines concerning endorsements and testimonials with the changes and updates specifically targeted towards online commenters, bloggers, tweeters, etc. I decided to write this blog today because this week I posted: Contests With a Voting Component .  ...
  1 day ago

• FTC Worries About Consumers, Cloud Data, and Privacy

  
  IT Professionals Database (ITPD) - The European IT Professionals Database Networking Platform — Authority: 137
  pcause writes "Ars Techina has a nice article about the FTCs concern that consumers dont understand the implications of storing their data in the cloud. From the article: Data is now sitting on servers outside of your control, where it can be accessed far more easily by Google itself, hackers, and law enforcement than ...
  1 day ago

• Should You Reserve Ad Budget for Sponsored Tweets?

  
  Family Learning Center — Authority: 165
  [IMG: http://www.family-learning-center.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/cf300_mylikes_logo_dec.jpg]
  1 day ago

• How the FTCs Endorsement Rules Unfairly Favor Celebrities

  
  DailyFinance — Authority: 766
  A few weeks ago, I reported on actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who appeared to have violated new Federal Trade Commission guidelines by endorsing a hotel shed stayed at without disclosing what sort of compensation, in the form of cash or freebies, shed received from the hotel. At the time, I was unable to get a hold of ...
  1 day ago

• DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis

  
  The Precursor Blog by Scott Cleland — Authority: 474
  In a filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the U.S Governments leading expert in assessing the state of competition in communications markets, implicitly rejected net neutrality proponents core thesis of broadband market failure. read more
  1 day ago

• FTC reminds us that storing data in the cloud has drawbacks

  
  Privacy Digest — Authority: 543
  FTC reminds us that storing data in the cloud has drawbacks : Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica . Take Googles new Nexus One phone as a case study of the pros and cons of storing life details on remote servers. Nexus One phones can back up their complete settings to Googles servers , including data ...
  1 day ago

• FTC to Facebook: We arent movie business, we dont greenlight privacy policies (Updated)

  
  Privacy Digest — Authority: 543
  Update: FTC to Facebook: We arent movie business, we dont greenlight privacy policies : Via . Update: Facebook issues response, clarifying that it didnt seek approval from FTC for new privacy policy. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, wants to clear the air about Facebooks new privacy policy ...
  1 day ago

• FTC reminds us that storing data in the cloud has drawbacks

  
  Ars Technica — Authority: 726
  Take Googles new Nexus One phone as a case study of the pros and cons of storing life details on remote servers. Nexus One phones can back up their complete settings to Googles servers , including data such as "Wi-Fi passwords, bookmarks, a list of the applications youve installed, the words youve added to the ...
  1 day ago

• FTC reminds us that storing data in the cloud has drawbacks

  
  ShareConnector — Authority: 151
  Take Google’s new Nexus One phone as a case study of the pros and cons of storing life details on remote servers. Nexus One phones can back up their complete settings to Google’s servers , including data such as “Wi-Fi passwords, bookmarks, a list of the applications you’ve installed, the words you’ve added ...
  1 day ago

• FTC Investigating Cloud Computing

  
  The VAR Guy — Authority: 492
  You read that right: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into cloud computing, trying to figure out what the very real security and privacy concerns could mean for consumers and what they have to do about it. The real trouble is that if the FTC hasn’t made itself entirely clear on what “cloud ...
  1 day ago

• FTC x Burton 3L Slick Jacket

  
  Hypebeast — Authority: 752
  FTC presents its latest collaboration with Burton, creating a special 3L Slick Jacket with the premier snowboard brand. The jacket features a mostly black theme with smoke highlights throughout, inspired by San Francisco’s well-documented smoking tradition. Holding a rich history with Burton that spreads a quarter ...
  1 day ago

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