Business Issues Blog

Google’s empire hasn’t exactly crumbled, and to be honest, the average person will probably never even realize what’s happened.

CNBC reports that the deal between GE and Comcast over a majority stake in NBC Universal is complete, and will likely be announced officially Thursday morning. This comes from what CNBC attributes as a “source close to the merger”. According to the report, GE and Comcast are waiting on Vivendi to sign an agreement, selling its 20% stake, which is worth about $5.8 billion. CNBC’s David Faber outlines the deal: The deal would make NBCU 51 percent owned by Comcast and 49 percent owned by GE. Currently, GE owns 80 percent of NBCU, which the two companies have valued at about $30 billion. The deal includes the spinoff of NBC Universal and $9 billion in debt. It also includes the merger of Comcast’s content assets and a $6 billion cash contribution. Bloomberg’s Todd Shields and Christopher Stern suggest that the deal would be heavily scrutinized by the FCC, and either the FTC or the Justice Department’s antitrust division. As Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable notes , rumors have been circulating about a deal for a couple months at least. It looks like rumors will become fact this week, if the unnamed source’s story holds water. Related

CNBC reports that the deal between GE and Comcast over a majority stake in NBC Universal is complete, and will likely be announced officially Thursday morning. This comes from what CNBC attributes as a “source close to the merger”. According to the report, GE and Comcast are waiting on Vivendi to sign an agreement, selling its 20% stake, which is worth about $5.8 billion. CNBC’s David Faber outlines the deal: The deal would make NBCU 51 percent owned by Comcast and 49 percent owned by GE. Currently, GE owns 80 percent of NBCU, which the two companies have valued at about $30 billion. The deal includes the spinoff of NBC Universal and $9 billion in debt. It also includes the merger of Comcast’s content assets and a $6 billion cash contribution. Bloomberg’s Todd Shields and Christopher Stern suggest that the deal would be heavily scrutinized by the FCC, and either the FTC or the Justice Department’s antitrust division. As Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable notes , rumors have been circulating about a deal for a couple months at least. It looks like rumors will become fact this week, if the unnamed source’s story holds water. Related

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is hosting a 2-day workshop on “Journalism and the Internet Age” today and tomorrow. Featured at the event are a number of high profile media executives and gurus. The cast ranges from News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch to Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington. The event appears to be designed to present all possible angles regarding the state of the news industry and the web’s role, as well as the government’s role, if any. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, who is appearing on a panel at the event himself, has a liveblog running, covering much of the discussion (and there is a lot of it), providing a good source for actual quotes. The newspaper industry is obviously struggling right now, and a common theme discussed throughout the workshop has been that the effects of the recession may be skewing the long term view. In other words, maybe it’s not really as bad as it seems right now. That said, publications clearly have to adapt to the online lifestyles of readers, whether that means the death of print newspapers or not. Let’s look at comments made by Murdoch and Huffington, because they basically represent opposing sides of the spectrum on a number of sub-topics to this discussion (Although to be fair, it’s probably not as black and white as that. There is certainly a lot of gray area in the discussion, which has been going on for years). Murdoch says three things have to happen: media companies have to deliver the news consumers want in ways that meet their lifestyles and must innovate like never before, they have to convince consumers that good journalism isn’t free, and the government needs to “clear obstacles.” Murdoch goes on to discuss other related topics, including that of fair use. He rips aggregators, calling aggregation “wholesale theft.” Huffington , whose site is largely known for aggregating content, says Murdoch is confusing aggregation with theft, but says they link to the Wall Street Journal every day and never get a complaint. She says that if it was wrong, they’d have heard about it. She also says aggregation is part of the web’s “DNA” and that Murdoch plays both sides, noting that some of Murdoch’s own sites also aggregate or “steal” content. Huffington also discusses things like social and collaborative news, and the concept of citizen journalism. There are many other speakers and opinions being voiced at the FTC’s event, and Sullivan’s liveblog captures a great deal of them. It will be interesting to see if the event leads to any significant progress in the ongoing discussion. On a related note, Google has posted about the ways it is focusing on helping news publishers gain traffic, engage audiences, and increase revenue. Related Articles: >

The new Red Flags Rule that are required to be followed by the FTC include 26 different examples of suspicious behaviors that any financial institution or lender can use to identify situations that are cause for concern. There are many different guidelines that are to be followed, covering everything from alerts and notifications that seem suspicious to warnings from service providers and other suspicious documents that show up in an unusual format or place. Taking the time to understand, train employees, and implement these guidelines should give people a more reasonable sense of security in this highly vulnerable world of commerce.

Because of the increased use of technology as a means of storing information and maintaining data, identity theft is increasing rapidly. In 2007, the Red Flags Rule were passed, otherwise known as Section 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) from 2003. These rules were designed specifically for financial institutions and lenders, allowing them to take extra steps to mitigate, prevent, and detect security breaches and identity theft. This program is designed to be used with certain accounts, including the opening of new accounts and the continued security of existing accounts.

Red Flags Rule are applicable to many businesses, including the following: banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, U.S. branches of foreign banks, utility companies, telecommunications companies, health care companies, municipalities, auto dealers, debt collectors, and any other business that deals directly with secure information or financial accounts. These rules apply to any account that involves payments or transactions of any kind that can be susceptible to security breaches and identity theft. Credit reporting agencies aren’t required to follow these rules, and some business customers may also be affected by them. These are two exceptions to the rule. Beyond that, the standard of who should follow them remains the same.

Anyone that does not follow these rules is subject to fines, negative publicity, and potential litigation, which serves more for embarrassment and defamation than actual punishment. The goal is to get every business to follow these rules and to make those who don’t deal with the negative publicity that demonstrates their inability to protect their customers’ accounts. Identity theft is not completely preventable, but the use of these rules can serve to make it harder to get away with in many cases. Ultimately, the Red Flags Rule are guidelines to make businesses more secure and protected, but nothing will completely stop identity theft without constant monitoring and new innovations.

Read more about Red Flags Rule on our blog…. Thank you for your continued readership.

Also learn more about Red Flags Rule at Lionheart Assurance Solutions.

DALLAS, Texas — The FTC’s new “Red Flags Rule” mandates an August 1, 2009 deadline for every US auto dealership to adopt a formal program to prevent and respond to customers purchasing vehicles with stolen identities. Just this week, one dealership in Houston, Texas found itself dealing with 11 vehicles fraudulently sold to an identity thief.

Ford dealerships in Denton, Sherman and Denison, Texas are already well ahead of the August deadline. Over the past 3 months, these dealerships have worked with the Dallas/Fort Worth office of Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP to prepare for the Red Flags Rule. Lionheart Assurance Solutions began by training all of their executives, creating an awareness of the new “culture of security” the FTC is expecting. Then, those executive teams began to communicate this new process to every employee in the dealership.

Employees were scheduled to attend Lionheart Assurance training sessions specifically dealing with their exposure to identity theft both directly and indirectly. For example, what if a service technician works on a vehicle and the customer has inadvertently left a document in the vehicle with personal identifying information? Maybe it’s just their payroll check stub, but the outcome could be costly for the dealer if not handled properly.

Michael McCoy, identity theft expert and author of the book, “The Silent Crime: What You Need to Know About Identity Theft”, states in his introduction, “…consumers would rather ignore risk and go on with life than fret and worry about potential identity theft. In other words, most people would rather exhibit ‘blissful ignorance’ regarding identity theft loss than proceed with the confusing, complex, time consuming, and expensive process of securing and protecting their identity”. Most of us simply are not aware of our exposure to identity theft and the trail of personal identifying information we leave unsecured.

Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP reports that after completion of the training, employees find they change procedures in their offices and more fully verify customer’s identities. Some auto dealers are now recording finger prints on the closing sales documents.

A confidentiality document is signed by every employee indicating their understanding and completion of the training provided by Lionheart. In addition, a comprehensive identity theft product is made available as a voluntary employee benefit. Employees are given tips to protect their identities at home, such as how to protect their mail, credit cards, social security numbers and driver’s license numbers from identity thieves.

Lionheart Assurance provides periodic updates of the employee policy and trains new employees as they are hired.

Pat Parker, Sr. VP of Business Development and Training for Lionheart Assurance said, “Our role is to not only assist auto dealers in understanding how to improve security, but also to help in mitigating their liability associated with data breaches. It’s significant because if dealers don’t put a plan in place by the August 1 deadline, the FTC can fine them as much as $2,500 for selling a vehicle to a buyer with a stolen identity.” Unfortunately, the consequences for auto dealers don’t stop there. Each subsequent violation can carry a fine of up to $11,000.

In servicing auto dealers, Lionheart Assurance calls on specially trained Agents, certified to assist in the identity theft mitigation process.

As August fast approaches, buyers beware – you may find auto dealerships will ask more questions to confirm your identity and ask for other forms of identification, much like the retail industry has begun to put in place. An increasing number of dealerships now display notices that they have taken proactive steps to protect non-public information for both customers and employees.

About Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP

Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP is a national business services firm that assists corporate clients in mitigating risks associated with the loss of employee or customer data by helping them to establish an ongoing program of compliance with federal and state identity theft laws. Specializing in employee group legal and identity theft protection benefits for businesses of all sizes, Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP serves over 240,000 corporate and individual North American clients. Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialists (CITRMS) work with clients to develop a comprehensive affirmative defense strategy including company-wide identity theft awareness training for all employees, and group identity theft protection and legal access plans that are made available to all employees as payroll deduction benefits.

For small to medium-sized clients, Lionheart also offers a full range of plans that help small businesses to “level the playing field” by providing access to the kinds of legal and consultative advice that typically only a large corporation can afford. In addition, Lionheart offers employee group legal plans designed to enhance worker productivity by helping employees keep their focus on their work instead of on their personal problems.

Robocalls are annoying. Have you been baraged or interrupted by a series of robocalls during your work day or worse yet have you been called on your cell phone and asked about renewing your auto warranty or setting up a satelite TV service?  If so, then with a bit of FTC and Congressional  intervention, your days of receiving these annoying robocalls will soon be over as the FTC and congressmen Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) now tackles robocall marketing abuses.  To read the entire story, then following the link above.