The Federal Trade Commission voted 4-0 in favor of approving the final order dated December 28, 2015, against revenge porn site operator Craig Brittain. The proposed settlement was first announced in 2015 when the FTC alleged that he engaged in deceptive and misleading conduct by posing as women on Craigslist, befriending women and offering to exchange nude images with them. He would then post the images he received onto his revenge porn website without their consent. Additionally, the FTC alleged that he also acquired images for his website by offering cash “bounties” to uploaders. The settlement requires that Brittain permanently erase all images and personal information acquired through his revenge porn website and that he not publish nude images without the depicted person’s express consent. For the next five years Brittain must keep records available for the FTC to inspect regarding affirmative consent, personal information he obtains through online businesses. If he operates online businesses, he must keep records regarding his privacy policies, takedown requests, user data, complaints, his responses to complaints, subpoenae, and more. For the next ten years he is required to notify the FTC about changes in his employment.
Within sixty days from the December 28, 2015, Brittain must file a true and accurate report setting forth in detail the manner in which he shall comply with the order.
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Without My Consent joined forces in a joint comment to the FTC mostly in support of the order. We received a three page response from Secretary of the Commission, Donald S. Clark, thanking us for our comment and responding to it point by point..
The order terminates on December 28, 2035.
