[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 93 (Monday, May 14, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28388-28390]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11613]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 102 3058]
Myspace, LLC; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public
Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices or unfair methods of competition. The attached Analysis to
Aid Public Comment describes both the allegations in the draft
complaint and the terms of the consent order--embodied in the consent
agreement--that would settle these allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 8, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Myspace, File No. 102
3058'' on your comment, and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/myspaceconsent, by following the
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, mail or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex
D), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katherine Race Brin (202-326-2106) or
Amanda Koulousias (202-326-3334), FTC, Bureau of Consumer Protection,
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 38 Stat. 721, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and Sec. 2.34 the
Commission Rules of Practice, 16 CFR 2.34, notice is hereby given that
the above-captioned consent agreement containing a consent order to
cease and desist, having been filed with and accepted, subject to final
approval, by the Commission, has been placed on the public record for a
period of thirty (30) days. The following Analysis to Aid Public
Comment describes the terms of the consent agreement, and the
allegations in the complaint. An electronic copy of the full text of
the consent agreement package can be obtained from the FTC Home Page
(for May 8, 2012), on the World Wide Web, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm. A paper copy can be obtained from the FTC Public
Reference Room, Room 130-H, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC
20580, either in person or by calling (202) 326-2222.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before June 8, 2012.
Write ``Myspace, File No. 102 3058'' on your comment. Your comment--
including your name and your state--will be placed on the public record
of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public
Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a
matter of discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home
contact information from comments before placing them on the Commission
Web site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which is obtained from any person and which is privileged or
confidential,'' as provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C.
46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). In particular, do
not include competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing
processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept
[[Page 28389]]
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/myspaceconsent by following the instructions on the web-based form.
If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also
may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Myspace, File No. 102
3058'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail or deliver it to
the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex D), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit your paper comment to the
Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before June 8, 2012. You can find more information,
including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in the
Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Agreement Containing Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission has accepted, subject to final
approval, a consent agreement from Myspace LLC (``Myspace'').
The proposed consent order has been placed on the public record for
thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by interested persons.
Comments received during this period will become part of the public
record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will again review the
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw from the agreement and take appropriate action or make final
the agreement's proposed order.
Myspace operates a social networking Web site, www.myspace.com,
that, among other features, enables a consumer who uses the site to
create and customize a personal online profile. These profiles contain
content about users, such as their name, the names of other users who
are their ``friends'' on the site, photos and videos they upload,
messages and comments they post or receive from their friends, and
other personal information. Myspace assigns a persistent unique
numerical identifier, called a ``Friend ID,'' to each user profile
created on Myspace. The Friend ID is a component of the URL for each
user's profile page. For example, inserting www.myspace.com/12345678
into the address bar of a web browser will bring up the Myspace profile
page of the user who is assigned Friend ID 12345678. The Friend ID can
be used to access information about the user, including the user's
profile picture, location, gender, age, display name (e.g., a nickname
or pseudonym displayed on the user's profile), and, in many cases, the
user's full name.
Myspace obtains revenue by allowing third-party or affiliate
advertising networks to serve advertisements directly on its site. The
FTC complaint alleges that Myspace made numerous promises to its users
regarding the extent to which it shared consumers' personal information
with third-party advertisers. The complaint alleges that Myspace
promised that: (1) It would not use or share a user's personally
identifiable information, defined as full name, email address, mailing
address, telephone number, or credit card number, without first giving
notice to and receiving permission from users; (2) the means through
which it customized ads did not allow advertisers to access personally
identifiable information or individually identify users; (3) the
information shared with advertisers regarding web browsing activity was
anonymized; and (4) it complied with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework.
The Commission's complaint alleges that Myspace violated Section
5(a) of the FTC Act, by misleading users about what information third-
party advertisers received about them. According to the FTC complaint,
from January 2009 through June 2010, and again from October 29, 2010
through October 28, 2011, when Myspace displayed advertisements on its
Web site from certain unaffiliated third-party advertisers, Myspace
and/or its affiliate provided those advertisers with the Friend ID of
the user who was viewing the page. With this information, a third-party
advertiser could take simple steps to get detailed information about
individual users. For example, a third-party advertiser could use the
Friend ID to visit the user's personal profile on the Myspace Web site
to obtain personal information, including, for most users, their full
name. A third-party advertiser could also combine the user's real name
and other personal information with additional information contained in
the advertiser's tracking cookie, a small text file placed on a user's
browser that may include information about the user's online browsing
history.
The proposed order contains provisions designed to prevent Myspace
from engaging in future practices similar to those alleged in the
complaint.
Part I of the proposed order prohibits Myspace from misrepresenting
the privacy and confidentiality of any ``covered information,'' as well
as the company,s compliance with any privacy, security, or other
compliance program, including but not limited to the U.S.-EU Safe
Harbor Framework. ``Covered information'' is defined broadly to include
an individual's: (a) First and last name; (b) home or other physical
address, including street name and city or town; (c) email address or
other online contact information, such as an instant messaging user
identifier or screen name; (d) mobile or other telephone number; (e)
photos and videos; (f) Internet Protocol (``IP'') address, User ID,
device ID, or other persistent identifier; (g) list of contacts; or (h)
physical location.
Part II of the proposed order requires Myspace to establish and
maintain a comprehensive privacy program that is reasonably designed
to: (1) Address privacy risks related to the development and management
of new and existing products and services, and (2) protect the privacy
and confidentiality of covered information. The privacy program must be
documented in writing and must contain privacy controls and procedures
appropriate to Myspace's size and complexity, the nature and scope of
its activities, and the sensitivity of covered information.
Specifically, the order requires Myspace to:
Designate an employee or employees to coordinate and be
responsible for the privacy program;
Identify reasonably-foreseeable, material risks, both
internal and external, that could result in the unauthorized
collection, use, or disclosure of covered information and assess the
sufficiency of any safeguards in place to control these risks;
Design and implement reasonable privacy controls and
procedures to control the risks identified through the privacy risk
assessment and regularly test or monitor the effectiveness of the
safeguards' key controls and procedures;
[[Page 28390]]
Develop and use reasonable steps to select and retain
service providers capable of appropriately protecting the privacy of
covered information they receive from respondent, and require service
providers by contract to implement and maintain appropriate privacy
protections; and
Evaluate and adjust its privacy program in light of the
results of the testing and monitoring, any material changes to its
operations or business arrangements, or any other circumstances that it
knows or has reason to know may have a material impact on the
effectiveness of its privacy program.
Part III of the proposed order requires that Myspace obtain within
180 days, and on a biennial basis thereafter for twenty (20) years, an
assessment and report from a qualified, objective, independent third-
party professional, certifying, among other things, that: It has in
place a privacy program that provides protections that meet or exceed
the protections required by Part II of the proposed order; and its
privacy controls are operating with sufficient effectiveness to provide
reasonable assurance that the privacy of covered information is
protected.
Parts IV through VIII of the proposed order are reporting and
compliance provisions. Part IV requires that Myspace retain for a
period of five (5) years: (a) All ``widely disseminated statements''
that describe the extent to which respondent maintains and protects the
privacy and confidentiality of any covered information, along with all
materials relied upon in making or disseminating such statements; (b)
all consumer complaints directed at Myspace, or forwarded to Myspace by
a third party, that allege unauthorized collection, use, or disclosure
of covered information and any responses to such complaints; (c) all
subpoenas and other communications with law enforcement entities or
personnel that relate to its compliance with the proposed order; (d)
documents that contradict, qualify, or call into question its
compliance with the proposed order. Part IV additionally requires that
Myspace retain all materials relied upon to prepare the third-party
assessments for a period of five (5) years after the date that each
assessment is prepared.
Part V requires dissemination of the order now and in the future to
principals, officers, directors, and managers, and to all current and
future employees, agents, and representatives having supervisory
responsibilities relating to the subject matter of the order. Part VI
ensures notification to the FTC of changes in corporate status. Part
VII mandates that Myspace submit an initial compliance report to the
FTC and make available to the FTC subsequent reports. Part VIII is a
provision ``sunsetting'' the order after twenty (20) years, with
certain exceptions.
The purpose of the analysis is to aid public comment on the
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the proposed order or to modify its terms in any way.
By direction of the Commission, Commisioner Ohlhausen not
participating.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-11613 Filed 5-11-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P