FTC settles with email company for deceptively collecting consumer information

Federal Issues FTC Deceptive UDAP

On August 8, the FTC announced a settlement with an email management company, which requires the company to delete the personal information it obtained from consumers’ email receipts after allegedly misleading consumers about the company’s services. In the complaint, the FTC alleges that the company, which assisted consumers in unsubscribing from unwanted subscription emails, deceptively told consumers that it would “never touch [their] personal stuff,” when providing the company access to their emails, but in reality, the company would access inboxes to collect consumers’ e-receipts to sell the purchase information to other companies. Moreover, the complaint alleges that, even after consumers chose to decline to allow the company access to their email, the company persisted with deceptive messages, which resulted in “[o]ver 20,000 consumers chang[ing] their minds and decid[ing] to complete the sign-up process after viewing the messages.” The settlement requires the company to: (i) delete from its system, and its parent company’s system, the email receipts it collected from consumers, unless it obtains their affirmative consent to maintain the information; (ii) cease misrepresenting the way it collects, uses, stores, or shares the information it collects; and (iii) notify consumers who have signed up for the service, after viewing the deceptive messages, about how it collects and shares information.