FTC Issues Final Order, Settles First FCRA Case with Mobile App Developer

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced on May 1, 2013 that, following a public comment period, the Commission approved a final order settling charges that Filiquarian Publishing, LLC, Choice Level, LLC, and their CEO, Joshua Linsk, operated as a consumer reporting agency without taking consumer protection measures required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). The FTC's settlement order prohibits the defendants from future FCRA violations and resolves the agency's first FCRA case involving mobile apps. Violations of the settlement order, which will stay in effect for twenty years, may be subject to civil penalties of up to $16,000 per violation. According to the FTC, customers could download the app via iTunes or the Google Android store that allowed consumers to access hundreds of thousands of criminal records and conduct searches on potential employees. The data was provided by Choice Level to Filiquarian and then accessed by the customers through the mobile app.