In December of last year, the FTC put into effect its new guidelines regarding the relationships between advertisers and endorsements. As David Mink, the Chief Legal Counsel for Dream Systems Media explains, these guidelines had not been updated for 30 years. With the rise of new media, particularly blogs, social media, and Twitter, the FTC felt the guides needed to be revised.

The real issue is the need for more transparency and disclosure of advertisers and endorsers.  The Commission believes that the general public is not savvy enough to understand that people could be getting paid to blog and tweet, just as they are in mediums such as television and radio.

Although the guides will impact bloggers, the FTC has said it does not intend to go after the small mom and pop businesses. According to Mink, the FTC is more concerned with corporate advertisers.

The government is also making efforts to protect consumers from identity theft and credit card fraud. Surprisingly, Mink says many companies do not even have privacy policies. In other words, consumers may not even know if a company is collecting information and what information it is.

As a result, the government is reportedly taking stricter measures in this area. In the meantime, states are stepping in. Mink tells WebProNews that 40 states have security breach notification statutes. These statutes say that if data is collected and breached, the company has to let its users know.

However, some states are taking a more aggressive approach. Connecticut passed a law that said companies have to have privacy policies when doing business in the state. It also requires that companies tell consumers what type of information they are collecting and how they are doing it. Massachusetts and Nevada both require companies to encrypt information.

Mink expects new recommendations from the government in this area soon.

Are you staying current on these important legal matters to ensure protection for your users?