[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 148 (Thursday, August 1, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37645-37646]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-16372]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File Nos. 182 3106 and 182 3107]
Aleksandr Kogan and Alexander Nix; Analysis To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreements; Request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreements in these matters settle 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 complaint and the terms of the consent orders--
embodied in the consent agreements--that would settle these
allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 3, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file comments online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``Aleksandr Kogan and
Alexander Nix; File Nos. 182 3106 and 182 3107'' on your comment, and
file your comment online at https://www.regulations.gov by following
the instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your
comment on paper, 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: Linda Holleran Kopp (202-326-2267),
Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600
Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580.
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 a 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 July 24, 2019), on the World Wide Web, at
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/commission-actions.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before September 3,
2019. Write ``Aleksandr Kogan and Alexander Nix; File Nos. 182 3106 and
182 3107'' 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 https://www.regulations.gov website.
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 through the https://www.regulations.gov website.
If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Aleksandr
Kogan and Alexander Nix; File Nos. 182 3106 and 182 3107'' 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. If
possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by courier or
overnight service.
Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible
website at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for
making sure that your comment does not include any sensitive or
confidential information. In particular, your comment should not
include any sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone
else'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, such as
medical records or other individually identifiable health information.
In addition, your comment should not include any ``trade secret or any
commercial or financial information which . . . is privileged or
confidential''--as provided by 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)--including in
particular competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing
processes, or customer names.
Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). 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
[[Page 37646]]
comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c).
Your comment will be kept confidential only if the General Counsel
grants your request in accordance with the law and the public interest.
Once your comment has been posted on the public FTC website--as legally
required by FTC Rule 4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment
from the FTC website, unless you submit a confidentiality request that
meets the requirements for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and
the General Counsel grants that request.
Visit the FTC website 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 September 3, 2019. For information on the
Commission's privacy policy, including routine uses permitted by the
Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Orders To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, two agreements containing consent orders from
Aleksandr Kogan and Alexander Nix, individuals.
The proposed consent orders have 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
agreements and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw from the agreements and take appropriate action or make final
the agreements' proposed orders.
Aleksandr Kogan, until September 2018, was a Senior Research
Associate and Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the
University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Kogan was also the
developer of a Facebook application called the GSRApp, sometimes
publicly referred to as the ``thisisyourdigitallife'' app.
Alexander Nix, until April 2018, was the Chief Executive Officer of
Cambridge Analytica LLC and the head of SCL Elections Ltd.
The Commission's proposed complaint alleges that Kogan, together
with the data analytics company, Cambridge Analytica, LLC, and its
Chief Executive Officer, Alexander Nix, used the GSRApp to harvest
certain Facebook user profile data from approximately 250,000-270,000
Facebook users who directly interacted with the app (``App Users''), as
well as 50-65 million of the ``friends'' in those users' Facebook
social network. The proposed complaint alleges that Respondents
obtained the App Users' consent to collect their Facebook profile data
through false and deceptive means.
The Commission's proposed complaint alleges a violation of Section
5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, specifically that
Respondents' representation to App Users that it would not ``download
[their] name or any other identifiable information'' was deceptive
because the GSRApp, in fact, collected identifiable information from
these users, including their Facebook User ID.\1\
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\1\ The Commission also issued an administrative complaint
against Cambridge Analytica alleging a similar deception count as
well as two additional counts related to its participation in
Privacy Shield, a framework that allows companies to transfer
personal data lawfully from the European Union to the United States.
The complaint alleges that representations on Cambridge Analytica's
website that Cambridge Analytica participated in Privacy Shield
after May 2018 were deceptive because the company did not take the
steps necessary to renew Cambridge Analytica's certification when it
expired in May 2018. The complaint also alleges that representations
on Cambridge Analytica's website that Cambridge Analytica adheres to
Privacy Shield's principles were deceptive because Cambridge
Analytica failed to comply with Privacy Shield's requirement to
affirm to the Commerce Department that the company would continue to
apply the principles to personal information that it received during
the time it participated in the program.
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The proposed consent orders contain injunctive provisions
addressing Kogan's and Nix's alleged unlawful conduct. Part I of the
proposed consent orders prohibits Kogan and Nix from making false or
deceptive statements regarding the extent to which they protect the
privacy and confidentiality of Covered Information as defined in the
proposed consent orders, including:
A. The extent to which they collect, use, share, or sell any
Covered Information; and
B. The purposes for which they collect, use, share, or sell any
Covered Information.
Part II of the proposed consent orders relates to the deletion and
destruction of Covered Information collected through the GSRApp, and
any information or work product, including any algorithms, derived from
such Covered Information, and requires Kogan and Nix to:
A. Provide a written statement, sworn under penalty of perjury,
with the name, address, and phone number for each person with whom they
shared any Covered Information collected from consumers through GSRApp,
and any information or work product that originated, in whole or in
part, from this Covered Information; and
B. Delete or destroy all Covered Information collected from
consumers though the GSRApp, and any information or work product,
including any algorithms or equations, that originated, in whole or in
part, from this Covered Information, which destruction must generally
occur within ten (10) days from the effective date of the proposed
orders. Kogan and Nix must then provide a statement, sworn under
penalty of perjury, confirming that the data has been destroyed or
deleted.
Parts III through VII of the proposed consent orders are reporting
and compliance provisions, which include recordkeeping requirements and
provisions requiring Respondents to provide information or documents
necessary for the Commission to monitor compliance. The proposed
consent orders will be in effect for twenty (20) years.
The purpose of this analysis is to aid public comment on the
proposed orders. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the proposed complaint or proposed orders, or to
modify in any way the proposed orders' terms.
By direction of the Commission.
April J. Tabor,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-16372 Filed 7-31-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P