In a move intended to give parents greater control over data collected about their children online, federal regulators on Wednesday broadened longstanding privacy safeguards covering children’s apps and Web sites.
Members of the Federal Trade Commission said they had updated the provisions to keep pace with the growing use of mobile phones and tablets among children. The regulations also reflect innovations like voice recognition technology, global positioning systems and behavior-based online advertising — that is, ads tailored to an Internet user’s habits.
Unsurprisingly, a number of marketers are unhappy with the new proposal and will likely challenge it in court. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, as conservatives are typically against the introduction of new business regulations; however, neither party wants to appear unconcerned with the privacy/protection of children. What do you think of the new rules?
Facebook’s proposed purchase of Instagramhas been cleared by the FTC, paving the way for the deal to close nearly five months after the initial announcement. This news comes a little over a week after the UK’s Office of Fair Trading gave similar approval to the deal. The FTC passed the deal unanimously in a five-to-zero vote, saying that “the deal may now proceed as proposed.” As Facebook has gone public since the purchase was first announced, the value of the deal is actually a good bit lower than the original estimated purchase price of $1 billion — the deal is for $300 million in cash, plus 22,999,412 shares of Facebook common stock. As of today, the whole deal is valued at $747.1 million.
Looks like the folks over at Instagram didn’t need that $200 million back-up plan after all. That being said, we still don’t blame them for being extra cautious when the stakes are that high.
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