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This new report from the FTC, False Claims in Spam (16 page pdf), states that is the first extensive review of deceptive and unfair practices that appear in unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). The study analyzed 1,000 spam e-mails drawn from a pool of 11,000 such messages, and concluded that at least one form of deception …
Junkbusters Corp., an organization whose declared mission is to stop spam, sent a letter to the FTC on April 22 requesting that the agency investigate discrepancies in the privacy statements posted by eBay as they result in the dissemination of personal data without customer knowledge. Junkbusters President Jason Catlett contends that eBay’s use of two …
The EU announced a plan in December 2002 to create a European E-business Legal Portal with the stated purpose of facilitating electronic cross-border transactions. On schedule, the Commission launched the site, eBusiness Lex that “contains information and resources on a range of relevant issues, including contractual aspects, online payments, privacy and data protection and intellectual …
Google is onboard the money train with their acquisition of Applied Semantics, “a company that makes software that analyzes the content of Web sites in order to match them with appropriate advertising,” according to this Reuter’s story. See the Google press release here, which states, “Applied Semantics’ products and engineering team will strengthen Google’s search …
A new report from Consumers Union, The Internet Tax You Don’t Know You Owe: Thousands of conflicting regulations lead to confusion, inconsistent taxation online.
The IRS Free File program has generated usage far beyond agency expectations, with 53 million taxpayers anticipated to file eletronically this year according to CNN. However, there is a flip side to this free web service. A coalition of advocacy groups (EPIC, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, National Consumer Law Center, and the …
Google’s Offspring: Taking Baby Steps critiques the search engine’s e-commerce site, Froogle, through which users can find information about a wide range of products for sale on the web by category.
New e-commerce bill introduced in the House on February 26: the Jurisdictional Certainty Over Digital Commerce Act, H.R. 945.
According to a report in today’s Seattle Times via AP and Bloomberg, and the March 1 WSJ, on December 6, 2002 ICANN granted Amazon.com approval to sell TLD (top level domain) Internet addresses to the public. A search of ICANN’s site yielded confirmation of this approval in a very discreet manner: on a ICANN-Accredited Registrars …
Consumer Reports published a new survey of the top six online travel booking websites. Sites are scored for credibilty, usability and content, and include CheapTickets, Expedia, OneTravel.com, Orbitz, TravelNow.com and Travelocity.
Last week, Israel’s Haaretz Daily published an article, Big Brother is watching you – and documenting, detailing statements made by eBay’s Director of Law Enforcement and Compliance, Joseph E. Sullivan, at the CyberCrime 2003 conference. Mr. Sullivan’s presentation, “eBay: Working with Law Enforcement,” was made behind closed-doors, but according to the article, was recorded. Sullivan …
Overture Services, Inc. has made its second major Internet search engine acquisition in one week’s time. On February 18, the company announced the purchase of AltaVista for $140 million in cash and stock. On February 25 came the announcement of the acquisition of the FAST Web Search(TM) algorithmic search, AlltheWeb.com(TM), and FAST PartnerSite(TM) paid inclusion …
