Spokeo Fined $800K By FTC For Marketing Its Services To Employers

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday June 12, 2012 @07:48AM from the ftc-wearing-the-daddypants-today dept.

nonprofiteer writes "Spokeo was one of the first public-facing person-profiling companies to attract the ire of those profiled. Taglined 'not your grandmother's phonebook,' it offers up profiles pulled from public records, social networking sites, etc, including your address, worth of your home, who's in your family, your estimated wealth, your hobbies and interests, and more. People freaked out when they first discovered it. Apparently, the company was selling reports to employers, but not following principles set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Federal Trade Commission is fining them $800,000. FTC also chastises them for writing fake positive reviews around the Web."

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Re:Nice slap on the wrist... by Saroful · 2012-06-12 08:22 · Score: 5, Interesting

The FTC should have forced them to send a copy of each and every report they sent out and to whom. The cost of sending out all of the reports, plus of all the lawsuits by those that were denied jobs because of the bad information within them, would be far above the fine.