"Meet Trump’s New FTC Pick, One Of America’s Richest Entrepreneurs"

"The founder and CEO of WeatherTech is worth more than $4 billion, thanks to his made-in-America car mats, dog bowls and sun shades. Now he has his sights set on trade regulation."

Monica Hunter-Hart for @Forbes

#uspol #news #trump #ftc.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicahunter-hart/2026/01/21/meet-trumps-new-ftc-pick-one-of-americas-richest-entrepreneurs/

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it will appeal the November ruling in favor of Meta in its antitrust case against the social media giant.

@AssociatedPress reports on the case that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp: https://flip.it/15-BOp

#Meta #FTC #SocialMedia #Technology #Antitrust

#FTC bans #GM from selling drivers' #location data for five years
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has finalized an order with #GeneralMotors and its subsidiary, #OnStar, settling charges that they collected and sold the location and driving data of millions of drivers without consent.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ftc-bans-general-motors-from-selling-drivers-location-data-for-five-years/

The FTC has reached a proposed settlement requiring Nomad to return $37.5M in recovered funds and adopt a structured information security program following its 2022 smart contract exploit.

The complaint points to inadequate testing, ignored audit findings, and weak vulnerability intake processes. From an InfoSec perspective, this case reinforces the importance of secure change management and executive alignment on risk.

How can security teams better escalate and enforce risk concerns before deployment?

Source: https://therecord.media/ftc-settlement-nomad-platform-return-customers-cryptocurrency

Share insights and follow @technadu for practical security analysis.

#InfoSec #SecureSDLC #SmartContractSecurity #RiskGovernance #FTC #CyberDefense #TechNadu

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FTC orders crypto platform Nomad to distribute $37.5 million after 2022 theft

Justice #Kavanaugh pushes the lawyer for the fired #FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter about the #Trump admin’s argument that “independent agencies are not accountable to the people.” The justice asked how the lawyer would respond to the argument that “they’re not elected as #Congress & the President are, & are exercising massive power over individual liberty & billion dollar industries.”

#law #HumphreysExecutor #SCOTUS #ActivistCourt #Autocracy #power #ExecutiveBranch #SeparationOfPowers 🧵

The ofcls include Rebecca Slaughter, whose firing from the #FTC is at issue in the current case, as well as ofcls from the #NLRB, #MSPB & #CPSC.

The only ofcls who have so far survived efforts to remove them are Lisa Cook, a #FederalReserve governor, & Shira Perlmutter, a #LibraryOfCongress copyright ofcl. #SCOTUS already has suggested that it will view the Fed differently from other #independent agencies, & #Trump has said he wants her out because of allegations of mortgage fraud.

#law

#Trump is once again asking #SCOTUS to expand his #power as the justices on Monday consider whether he can fire #independent government officials insulated by #laws meant to shield them from #politics.

The case involves Trump’s firing of a commissioner on the #FTC & a landmark decision from 1935, which said that #Congress could put limits on the president’s authority to remove some executive branch officials.

#law #HumphreysExecutor #ActivistCourt #Autocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/08/us/trump-supreme-court-presidential-power?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Under federal #law, #Trump is free to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a member of the #FTC. But he has to provide a reason. #Congress has defined sufficient cause to fire a member of the FTC as “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

#law #HumphreysExecutor #SCOTUS #ActivistCourt #Trump #Autocracy

Federal laws requiring presidents to show cause are, on the other hand, commonplace. More than 30 statutes say that leaders of executive agencies can be removed only for some combination of the same factors cited in the #law shielding #FTC commissioners like Ms. Slaughter. Another 20 or so, like the one governing the #FederalReserve Board, say only that agency leaders may be removed “for cause,” without elaboration.

#HumphreysExecutor #SCOTUS #ActivistCourt #Trump #Autocracy

Nelson’s September article was repeatedly cited by lawyers for Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the member of the #FTC whose firing is at issue in Monday’s case, in her main #SCOTUS brief. In reply, lawyers for #Trump wrote that Ms. Slaughter’s brief “rehashes objections to the removal power” from a “recent essay by Professor Caleb Nelson.”

#law #HumphreysExecutor #ActivistCourt #Autocracy #power #ExecutiveBranch #SeparationOfPowers #Congress 🧵

Finally Sauer is finished.

The justices will now hear from Amit Agarwal the lawyer representing fired #FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.

Agarwal is a special counsel for Protect Democracy, which describes itself as “a cross-ideological nonprofit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat.”

He worked as a law clerk for Judge #Kavanaugh on the US Court of Appeals for DC, before #Trump nominated Kavanaugh to #SCOTUS. He also worked as a clerk for Justice Samuel #Alito.

#law 🧵

EdTech provider Illuminate Education has settled with the FTC after allegations that legacy vulnerabilities, outdated credentials, and delayed notifications contributed to a 2021 breach that exposed data from 10.1M students.

What safeguards should be mandatory for vendors handling children’s data today?

Follow @technadu for more independent InfoSec coverage.

#CyberSecurity #EdTech #FTC #StudentData #DataPrivacy #Infosec #CyberStandards #RiskManagement

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Edtech company settles with FTC in wake of data breach

@funnymonkey @douglevin @mkeierleber

You might want to compare what the #FTC now requires of them to what Illuminate's settlement with three state attorneys general requires:

https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/illuminate-education-inc-assurance-of-discontinuance-2025.pdf

#enforcement #edtech #databreach #edusec #cybersecurity #incidentresponse

Apparently, if you get a message about this price increase and then cancel your subscription, you're magically offered the option to subscribe to "Office 365 Classic", which is the same price and doesn't have the AI features.

I don't pay for an Office 365 subscription so I can't verify if this works, but frankly if I did I'd cancel it right now as a way to get rid of the AI. I'm sharing in case it helps anyone, and I'd love to hear if anyone tries this and if it works.

Post is here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-jeffrey-funk-a979435_technology-innovation-artificialintelligence-activity-7283082705028726784-0pJj/

Oh and as an aside: whenever you come across scammy corporate behavior like this you should report it to the FTC at https://ftc.gov/complaint . That form eventually asks for a bunch of personal information like you're address but you can omit that.

#LinkedIn #Microsoft #Office365 #AI #FTC

Google is now a bona fide illegal monopolist

Always worth remembering this, as another (the bigger) antitrust case against Google is in closing arguments today.

Google is trying to get its Gemini AI into Apple's next iPhone update. This industry seems to think it's above the law and even above what consumers want from them. It's long past time these giant companies be broken up.

#Google #Is #An #Illegal #Monopoly #iPhone #Apple #FTC