Roy Mark

The land rush that is online advertising is getting more competitive with each passing day, as top-tier technology vendors grapple to find ways to get a larger share of the pie. It also is getting the attention of lawmakers, particularly those being asked to give their OK to Google’s plans to spend $3.1 billion to […]

Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick cleared U.S. regulators Dec. 20 with a 4-1 vote of the Federal Trade Commission. After an eight-month review of the merger, the FTC concluded the deal is “unlikely to substantially lessen competition.” The deal still needs the approval of the European Commission, which opened an extensive investigation into the […]

Five U.S. senators urged the Federal Communications Commission Dec. 20 to approve the unlicensed use of the interference buffer spectrum—known as white space—between television channels. Although broadcasters are allocated hundreds of megahertz of spectrum in every U.S. television market, significant chunks go unused, serving as interference zones from other channels. The unused spectrum is considered […]

Although the Federal Trade Commission did not discuss privacy issues in its approval of the $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick merger, the agency still has plenty to say to the advertising community about data collection and consumer privacy. In hopes of setting the pace for a self-regulatory privacy regime for companies that track consumer online activities, the […]

After hours of impassioned debate, the Senate decided late Dec. 17 to delay a vote on granting telecoms immunity for their alleged participation in President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate would next deal with the bill in January. The immunity issue is tied to a renewal of FISA (the […]

Unlike other candidates, Mitt Romney brings an extensive business background to the race for the White House. In fact, Romney says he is the only candidate-Republican or Democrat-who has the chops to lead the economy. As such, his positions reflect the traditional private-sector view of government: Stay out of business affairs unless the litigation helps […]

A Web-based operation that sold telephone records without consumer consent settled Federal Trade Commission charges Dec. 17 that it violated federal laws. The settlement bans the CEO Group—doing business as Check Em Out—from marketing or selling telephone records. The settlement imposed a total judgment of $222,381, but due to the company’s inability to pay, all […]

Federal Trade Commission Chair Deborah Platt Majoras refused Dec. 14 to recuse herself in the agency’s review of the proposed $3.1 billion merger of online advertising giants Google and DoubleClick. Her refusal received the full support of her four fellow FTC commissioners. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy questioned Majoras’ […]

WASHINGTON—Beset with preliminary technical woes and a lack of political traction in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission, a new organization started up on Dec. 12 to promote the unlicensed use of interference buffer spectrum between television channels. The Wireless Innovation Alliance, a coalition of technology companies, public interest advocates, think tanks and higher […]

Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras should recuse herself from voting on the Google-DoubleClick deal because her husband works for the law firm representing DoubleClick, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy said Dec. 12 in an FTC filing. Both organizations have jointly filed a petition with the FTC opposed […]

The Grinch this holiday season may well prove to be some of the nation’s largest banks. With losses continuing to mount due to the collapse of the mortgage market, short-term loans are drying up and consumer confidence is falling. The grim reaper greetings from Bank of America, Wachovia, Citigroup and JPMorgan, though, are likely to […]

Consumer and public advocacy groups are urging the Federal Communications Commission to declare that text messages deserve the same nondiscriminatory treatment by telephone carriers as e-mail and voice messages. In a petition filed with the FCC on Dec. 11, the groups claim: “Mobile carriers currently can and do arbitrarily decide what customers to serve and […]