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Brain Game Maker Lumosity Fined $2 Million For False Advertising (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Lumos Labs, the company that produces the popular 'brain-training' program Lumosity, yesterday agreed to pay a $2 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for running deceptive advertisements. Lumos had claimed that its online games can help users perform better at work and in school, and stave off cognitive deficits associated with serious diseases such as Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress.
The $2 million settlement will be used to compensate Lumosity consumers who were misled by false advertising, says Michelle Rusk, a spokesperson with the FTC in Washington, D.C. The company will also be required to provide an easy way to cancel auto-renewal billing for the service, which includes online and mobile app subscriptions, with payments ranging from $14.95 monthly to lifetime memberships for $299.95. Before consumers can access the games, a pop-up screen will alert them to the FTC's order and allow them to avoid future billing, Rusk says.
The $2 million settlement will be used to compensate Lumosity consumers who were misled by false advertising, says Michelle Rusk, a spokesperson with the FTC in Washington, D.C. The company will also be required to provide an easy way to cancel auto-renewal billing for the service, which includes online and mobile app subscriptions, with payments ranging from $14.95 monthly to lifetime memberships for $299.95. Before consumers can access the games, a pop-up screen will alert them to the FTC's order and allow them to avoid future billing, Rusk says.
o/
I noticed that it is one of the highest rated apps in the iTunes store. 70 million installs. $11 a month. That is like a billion dollars a month*! * I don't use Lumosity.
It seems as though the plaintiffs became smart enough to realize it's possible to use the legal system to enrich themselves. Was it the game that did it?
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
Wait, let me get this straight, you can sell herbal supplements with the same claim and weak/non-existent scientific support and be in the clear, but this is worthy of a fine? Or how about selling "unlimited" data plans that are explicitly NOT unlimited, and not be hit with false advertising either?
Oh, wait. I forgot what country this was. They probably didn't give the right bribes out to be in the clear. NM, nothing to see here.
Someone with a very smart brain made millions off stupid people. What could be smarter than that
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Yeah, their claims were pretty exaggerated. When I saw they had a Brain Training exercise that increased penis size I knew they were on pretty shaky ground.
Unlike most IQ tests I ever took, the tests on Lumosity actually correlated pretty well with my own experience of where I do well and where I don't do well. For example, games which require switching tasks rapidly is not something I can do. The games which required that did expose it. I got very high scores on numerical skills and much lower ones on vocabulary ones. This all may seem very general, but when I played their games, I did find that they targeted very specific cognitive functions. The question is whether playing the games can improve those functions or is it only testing them. They claimed they improved them. And, I guess, they can't back that up. But the tests were more accurate than anything else I've seen anywhere (and I have looked).
Name me one fucking instance where the settlement went to the consumers who were misled. This will go the lawyers, and you'll get mailed a fucking coupon for $5 off your next goddamned month of Lumosity.
These settlements are complete horseshit, and don't act as a deterrent. Compensate consumers my ass.
And, yes, I'm intentionally swearing for effect, because claiming this will compensate consumers if a completely fucking lie.
You want to compensate people and act as a deterrent? Let them line up and take a swipe at the CEO. THAT might stop this kind of behavior. This $2 million settlement? That won't do a damned thing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Luminosity, reading, puzzle solving, posting intelligently... everything helps.
Stagnation is the great killer.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The company will also be required to provide an easy way to cancel... lifetime memberships for $299.95.
Why would anyone cancel a lifetime membership in this, or anything for that matter?
If they have perpetual access with no further obligation it would be stupid to cancel it (unless they think cancelling is some kind of moral stand).
They shouldn't make false claims, but doing so doesn't invalidate the system. I was very, very slowly recovering from a concussion when I finally felt well enough to try Lumosity. My neurologist unenthusiastically recommended it over BrainHQ ("If you must try one of those things, at least use the one that works." He's not big into "new-age" cures like nutrition, either, just drugs with horrible side effects and patience.) Within a week, I started to see real improvement in my ability to concentrate and change focus between tasks. I've been doing it every day for about 7 weeks and have inched up in the percentile scores from the teens to the nineties (I'm an Anonymous Bragger, too). It could be a coincidence or just part of a number of factors including the simple passage of time. I suspect that Lumosity helped. It's also elegantly designed and fun. Last week, I contacted Lumosity to be part of their research on using their games for folks with concussions.
I've paid for a one-year subscription, which was about the same amount as four monthly payments. It seemed clear even in my foggy state that the games were intended for people with healthy brains. (Of course, they may have adjusted their claims after the lawsuit started.) They didn't promise help with concussions. I hope they are able to prove that it does.
If you are interested in learning more about neuroplasticity, read Norman Doidge. Clark Elliott's book The Ghost in My Brain is a harrowing tale of an AI professor with a concussion much worse than mine.
PT Barnum said it best....
I heard that Oil of Oley was sued. I think that they reworded their commercials to say that "it makes skin look younger" from the old claims that it "actually reverses effects of aging". Mostly, I think that the company reduced the number of explicit TV ad and rely on "word of mouth" and leave the blame with the cosmetics salesperson to take any hits.
Still, fraud by my definition, but less fraudulent. Olive Oil is just as "effective at reducing lines and wrinkles" but costs a lot less.
If you're going to practice something every day, why not make it something other than some dumb ass app. Like, learn to cook or play a musical instrument. Is it some miracle that people get better at some shit they do every day?
The science behind Lumosity's claims looks positive so far. Did the FTC provide any counter examples or studies showing that certain types of Lumosity games are not significantly effective? It seems to me that the government would have a vested interested in improving the intelligence of its population. http://www.scientificamerican....