FTC Stands By 2021 Consent Order Against Spyware CEO
The FTC won’t set aside its consent order in a “stalkerware” case involving the company Support King and its website SpyFone.com, the federal agency said Monday. Commissioners voted 2-0 Friday in favor of an order to deny a June 27 petition by the company’s CEO Scott Zuckerman.
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Zuckerman had asked the FTC to vacate or modify the agency’s 2021 order banning him from selling monitoring products and services and requiring an information security program (see 2507180024). But in comments that were due in August, consumers advocates urged the commission to deny the petition given the egregiousness of the privacy violations (see 2508270057).
Agreeing with the advocates, the FTC decided Friday that Zuckerman “failed to show changed conditions of fact or law sufficient to justify reopening the Consent Order.” The agency added in the order that maintaining the consent order “remains in the public interest.” Zuckerman didn’t comment on Monday.
Zuckerman had argued that there have been changes, including that Spyfone is no longer in business, his other businesses aren’t related “and the Commission’s regulatory priorities have changed,” according to the order. However, the FTC noted that Zuckerman gives a contradictory argument that his upcoming businesses are unrelated while complaining that the consent order’s obligations are burdensome.
“Both arguments cannot be true,” the FTC said. “Either Zuckerman’s new businesses do not collect consumers’ personal information and, therefore, any compliance obligations are minimal, or his new businesses collect consumers’ personal information, and thus the current compliance obligations are warranted.”