[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 28 (Thursday, February 11, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7342-7343]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-02769]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 152 3159]
General Workings Inc. (Also Doing Business as Vulcun); Analysis
of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these
allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 8, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/vulcunconsent online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``General Workings Inc.
also doing business as Vulcun--Consent Agreement; File No. 152-3159''
on your comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/vulcunconsent by following the
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, write ``General Workings Inc. also doing business as Vulcun--
Consent Agreement; File No. 152-3159'' on your comment and on the
envelope, and mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite
CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex
D), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jacob Snow (415) 848-5175 or Alexander
Reicher (415) 848-5198, FTC Western Region, San Francisco, 901 Market
Street, Suite 570, San Francisco, CA 94103.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for February 5, 2016), on the World Wide Web
at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before March 8, 2016.
Write ``General Workings Inc. also doing business as Vulcun--Consent
Agreement; File No. 152-3159'' on your comment. Your comment--including
your name and your state--will be placed on the public record of this
proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public
Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a
matter of discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home
contact information from comments before placing them on the Commission
Web site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/vulcunconsent by following the instructions on the web-based form.
If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also
may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``General Workings Inc.
also doing business as Vulcun--Consent Agreement; File No. 152-3159''
on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
600 Pennsylvania Avenue
[[Page 7343]]
NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor,
Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your
paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before March 8, 2016. You can find more information,
including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in the
Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has
accepted, subject to final approval, an agreement containing consent
order from General Workings Inc., Ali Moiz, and Murtaza Hussain
(collectively ``Respondents'').
The proposed consent order has been placed on the public record for
thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by interested persons.
Comments received during this period will become part of the public
record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will again review the
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw from the agreement and take appropriate action or make final
the agreement's proposed order.
Respondent General Workings Inc., also doing business as Vulcun, is
a Delaware corporation with its principal office or place of business
in San Francisco, California. Respondents Ali Moiz and Murtaza Hussain
are founders and officers of Vulcun. The Commission's complaint alleges
that Respondents installed software, including Chrome browser
extensions and mobile apps, onto users' desktops and mobile devices
without adequately disclosing to users that the software would be
installed. Google offers a web browser, Chrome, as a free download for
desktop computer and mobile operating systems. The desktop-computer
version of Chrome allows users to install ``browser extensions,'' which
are software programs that can modify and extend Chrome's
functionality. Respondents' conduct had two parts. First, Respondents
acquired a popular browser-based game called Running Fred and replaced
it entirely with their own software program, called Weekly Android
Apps, on users' desktops. Users of Running Fred were not informed that
the game had been replaced. Second, Weekly Android Apps contained code
that would install, again without adequate disclosure to users, apps on
user's mobile devices.
The proposed consent order contains provisions designed to prevent
Respondents from engaging in similar acts or practices in the future.
Part I of the proposed order prohibits Respondents from
misrepresenting certain aspects of any browser extension, Web site, web
service, mobile app, or any other product or service they offer or
operate. Specifically, Respondents are prohibited from misrepresenting:
The existence of certain endorsements; the nature of their products and
services; the installation, download, usage, review, or endorsement
statistics associated with their products and services; the press
coverage of their products and services; their information collection,
usage, disclosure, and sharing practices; the extent of user control
over information about individual consumers; the purpose of collecting,
using, disclosing, or sharing information about individual consumers;
and the extent to which Respondents protect the privacy,
confidentiality, security, and integrity of information collected from
or about consumers.
Part II of the proposed order requires Respondents to clearly and
conspicuously disclose the types of information their products and
services will access, how that information will be used, and the nature
of any changes to Respondents' products and services. The order also
requires Respondents to display built-in permission notices or
approvals, and to obtain consumer's express affirmative consent prior
to installation or material changes of any product or service.
Part III of the proposed order requires Respondents to delete
certain information collected about individual consumers within ten
days of entry of the order.
Part IV of the proposed order contains recordkeeping requirements
for advertisements and substantiation relevant to representations
covered by Parts I through III of the order.
Parts V, VI, VII, and VIII of the proposed order require
Respondents to: Deliver a copy of the order to certain personnel who
have responsibilities with respect to the subject matter of the order;
notify the Commission of changes in corporate structure that might
affect compliance obligations under the order; notify the Commission of
changes in the employment of Respondents Moiz and Hussain; and file
compliance reports with the Commission.
Part IX of the proposed order provides that the order will
terminate after twenty (20) years, with certain exceptions.
The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the
proposed order, and it is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the complaint or proposed order, or to modify the
proposed order's terms in any way.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-02769 Filed 2-10-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P