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USA Today:  Facebook's new features remain unpopular

The more you use Facebook, the less likely you are to be concerned about privacy invasion.

That's the core finding of a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll telephone survey last week of more than 2,000 adults.

Inside TV:  'Happy Days' lawsuit: Fraud claim thrown out by judge

Back in April, members of the cast of Happy Days, including Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Don Most, Anson Williams, and the estate of the late Tom Bosley, filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that the network violated breach of contract and owed them for merchandising revenues that they had been cut out of. The $10 million suit claimed the stars of the sitcom “were guaranteed five percent of royalties profits if their images appeared on a product.”

Excite News:  Report: Food labels need Energy Star-like ratings

Just as that Energy Star tag helps you choose your appliances, a new report says a rating symbol on the front of every soup can, cereal box and yogurt container could help hurried shoppers go home with the healthiest foods.

The Hill:  FTC approves Google Buzz settlement

The Federal Trade Commission voted 4-0 to give final approval to its settlement with Google over the failed rollout of its Buzz social network last year.

CNET:  Google, Facebook go retro in push to update 1986 privacy law

For a few hours on Capitol Hill yesterday evening, it was October 1986 again, complete with legwarmers, an Apple IIc, pop rocks, Duran Duran, and cell phones the size of a cat.

The companies sponsoring this night of nostalgia include Google and Facebook, which are hoping to visibly highlight how out-of-date a law enacted 25 years ago today has become in an age of cloud computing, gigabit networks, and terabyte storage.

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Information Week:  Government officials tell companies at Web 2.0 Summit that they are asking for trouble if they collect data first and ask questions later.

Would-be data miners were urged to dig carefully at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Ann Cavoukian, information and privacy commissioner of Ontario, Canada, and David Vladeck, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, took turns advising the entrepreneurs and business leaders in the audience to gather only data that's necessary and to do so in a way that respects user privacy.

LA Times:  No fruit in Fruit by the Foot? General Mills sued over snacks [Updated]

There’s not much fruit in General Mills snacks such as Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit by the Foot and Fruit Gushers, alleges a new suit against the giant food company.

Instead, the candies are stuffed with sugars, artificial additives and dyes, according to a complaint filed Friday in federal court in California. The nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, filing on behalf of Northern California mother Annie Lam, claims that the products give a misleading impression of being healthy by professing to be low in calories, fat and gluten.

Direct Marketing News:  Study: Consumers most willing to share shopping data with brands

Consumers are most willing to share shopping data with brands online, according to a study released by agency network McCann Worldgroup's McCann Truth Central on Oct. 18. "The Truth About Privacy” study found that 71% of consumers said they would share shopping-related data, such as product “likes” and browsing history, with a brand online.

New York Law Journal:  Viacom Urges Second Circuit to Revive YouTube Suit

Viacom International and a host of content providers asked a federal appeals court yesterday to reverse a decision dooming their claim that YouTube is liable for $1 billion in damages for copyright infringement.

Tech Daily Dose:  Energy And Commerce Panel To Examine Net Gambling

It looks like supporters of fully legalizing online poker may get a chance to make their case before Congress.

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After a swift left to the chin in early September from the Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair, Rep. Fred Upton, David Vladeck, the FTC Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, testified before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, and the Subcommittee on Health, October 12, 2011, discussing the International Working Group (IWG) and changes that are underway.

• The tone of Vladeck’s statement bore a marked respect for, though not deference toward, advertising self-regulation. This is in contrast to his speech before the self-regulatory National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus October 3, 2011, in which he only mentioned in passing the positive role of self-regulation. In his statement before the Subcommittees, he made a much more significant effort to acknowledge the success that has been achieved to date by self regulation both in the form of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) and the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).
• Because there is no scientific link between marketing of food and obesity, Vladeck made it clear that the Commission is asking industry to take on a share of the responsibility for solving the obesity problem “regardless of whether or to what extent food marketing may have contributed to the problem of childhood obesity” in the first place. In other words, according to Vladeck, it is a proper role of government to pressure industry to help solve multi-factored social problems by not marketing (and therefore not selling) products that may have no relationship to the social problems that the government is seeking to address. Vladeck referred the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report from 2008 to highlight the fact that marketing influences food and beverage preferences, purchase requests and short-term diets of children under 12 to support the Commission’s position that industry should use its marketing power to eat certain foods rather than other foods. One can interpret this initiative as simply government telling industry what to advertise and what to sell based on a stated political goal. “Children’s health is the ultimate goal, and marketing of more nutritious foods is one effective tool to help achieve that goal.” 
• Vladeck, who famously dismissed the notion that the IWG proposals could raise First Amendment concerns last summer in a blog post, apparently has been convinced that there may be some validity to the First Amendment arguments made by academics and lawyers in the advertising field. He states, “Our commitment to finding the best balance between what is best for children’s health and what is workable for industry has guided this entire process. . . . .The Working Group’s proposal is strictly voluntary. The Commission recognizes that some forms of regulatory action could raise First Amendment concerns.”
• After 29,000 comments and after new CFBAI guidelines, which go a long way toward achieving the government’s goal of restricting marketing behavior related to certain foods and beverages, the FTC is signaling significant changes to its proposals. Those changes include:
  • Limiting the scope of marketing to children to those aged 2-11, rather than the originally proposed 2-17. Vladeck: “It is often difficult to distinguish marketing designed to appeal to this age group from marketing directed to a general or adult audience.”
  • Limiting the scope of the marketing activities included within the proposals. Vladeck: “The FTC staff believes that philanthropic activities, charitable events, community programs, entertainment and sporting events, and theme parks are, for the most part, directed to families or the general community and do not warrant inclusion with more specifically child-directed marketing. Moreover, it would be counter productive to discourage food company sponsorship of these activities to the extent that many benefit children’s health by promoting physical activity.”
  • Eliminating recommendations regarding trade dress and brands. Vladeck: “The Commission staff does not contemplate recommending that food companies change the trade dress elements of their packaging or remove brand equity characters from food products that don’t meet nutrition recommendations.”
  • Eliminating recommendations regarding in-store displays and packaging of seasonal or holiday confections.
  • Adjusting the proposed audience share criterion for “traditional media marketing,” including television, radio, and print, from 30 percent children ages 2 to 11 years, to 35 percent – which is the same age criterion used by CFBAI.

The IWG proposal is not dead, however. Expect to see the revised version focused more specifically on traditional media and on online, digital, and social marketing. Also, the IWG proposal will still seek to press its recommendations in the area of advertising or product placement in movies and video games. Additionally, it will cover sweepstakes and premium offers. And, in the one remaining proposal that will cover children and adolescents, Vladeck signaled that the proposal will cover marketing activities in schools for both children and adolescents.

Thus, the IWG proposal will be scaled back significantly. One important lesson: Self-regulation is critical, but industry must be careful of using self-regulation so aggressively that it creates a blueprint for “voluntary” regulation by governmental bodies. Cooperation between government and industry that results in co-regulation is not self-regulation. With the FTC standing right beside self-regulatory efforts, tweaking self-regulation as it deems necessary to advance espoused governmental goals of protecting children, the augmented CFBAI standards may be likely to be the presumptive norm for governmental expectations (and enforcement?). Let’s hope that the blueprint we’re now working off of will build a structure we can all live in.

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Environmental Leader:  More Consumers Believe Sustainability Claims – But Many Still Skeptical

Americans today are more likely to believe businesses’ green claims, but 39 percent still say that companies’ assertions about the environment are not accurate, according to a report from GfK Roper Consulting.

Excite News:  NY Sen. Schumer accuses OnStar of invading privacy

The OnStar automobile communication service used by 6 million Americans maintains its two-way connection with a customer even after the service is discontinued, while reserving the right to sell data from that connection.

Mediapost:  Privacy Icons Roll Out On Video Ads

The you-are-being-targeted icons that began rolling out on banner ads late last year are now coming to video ads. Privacy company Truste has entered into an agreement with Adap.tv to carry the icons on the company's online ad platform. As of July, Adap.tv reaches more than 20% of the U.S. population, according to comScore.

Court House News:  Court Axes $100K Award in GoPets Cyber Warfare

The minds behind "virtual pets" cannot tweak what it means to register a domain name on the Internet, the 9th Circuit ruled Thursday, setting aside a $100,000 victory for the South Korean company in a long-running cybersquatting case.

Bloomberg:  M&S, Interflora Both Claim Victory in Case Over Internet Ads

Marks & Spencer Group Plc (MKS) and florist network Interflora both claimed victory following a European Union court ruling on whether companies can use rival’s trademarked terms to trigger advertisements on search engines.

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