New Internet Laws Could Mean Fines for Website and Blog Owners?
It is often said that (FTC) or the state of California will rarely use their time and resources pursuing legal action or slapping website or blog owners with fines.
Admittedly, in past years, this was probably true. However, with the aggressive Internet privacy laws being passed concerning individual privacy, advertising disclosures and marketing to minors, the threat of enforcement and fines by federal and state regulatory agencies should be a real concern for website operators, blog operators and mobile app developers.
This is based on warnings from both the (FTC) and state of California that not complying with the new laws and regulations could result in legal action and fines.
With new California laws becoming effective January 1st, 2014, you can expect more legal actions and fines against website and blog operators who do not comply with California’s new laws. This law has a long reach and could affect website and blog operators in all states.
California says they will send out warning notices of non-compliance and give website and blog owners 30 days to comply with the new laws before they are fined $2,500 per violation. In the case of mobile apps, each download can be considered a separate violation.
After recently forming a privacy enforcement unit, one wonders how long the California Attorney General’s office will send out warning notices at their expense before they decide to take the more profitable course and just issue the $2,500 fine without any warning at all. At this time, it looks like they will send out a warning to operators of online websites and blogs first.
So it would seem updating your privacy policy and other disclosures to comply with these new laws are the better path to take, rather than risk possible legal problems and fines.
For details about the new laws and how to comply with them, Click Here
