On May 8, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced a $21,250 settlement with Denver marketing company Ifficient for inappropriately using consumer data for work Ifficient performed on behalf of broadband industry clients concerning a Federal Communications Commission proposed regulation repeal.

In 2017, Ifficient was hired to generate comments for public submission regarding the rulemaking proceeding. It was supposed to gather comments by showing consumers a form letter and asking them to endorse it by providing their names and addresses. Instead, Ifficient used a vendor to acquire names and addresses from unrelated campaigns. Ifficient provided this information to its clients and misrepresented that the consumers consented to having a public comment submitted on their behalf.

As part of the settlement, Ifficient will pay the state of Colorado $21,250 and must prove to the Colorado Department of Law its compliance with state law for the next five years.

Why It Matters

Although not as large as some other privacy settlements, the settlement figure signifies that AGs’ concern with privacy violations regardless of the amount of money at issue. It further shows AGs’ steadfast commitment to protecting consumers against the misuse and sale of their personal data without their consent.