FTC Shuts Down Mrs. Fields Online Cookie Club
from the evil-cookie-club dept
The FTC has stepped in to shut down the "Cookie Club" on the website for the famous Mrs. Fields Cookies. Apparently, they've been violating all sorts of laws in how you're supposed to collect information on children surfers. They didn't clearly explain how the info would be used, and didn't make it easy for parents to review the info. From the sound of it, they just don't know how. They shut down the program and deleted the database, and won't start it up again. You would think that someone at the company would be checking these things to make sure they didn't violate any laws.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team