The New York Attorney General recently entered into an
assurance of discontinuance with Saturn Technologies, operator
of an app used by high school and college students. The app was
designed to be a social media platform that assists students with
tracking their calendars and events. It also includes connection
and social networking features and displayed students'
information to others. This included students' location and
club participation, among other things. According to the NYAG, the
company had engaged in a series of acts that violated the
state's unfair and deceptive trade practice laws.
In particular, according to the attorney general, although the
app said that it verified users before allowing them into these
school communities, in fact anyone could join them. Based on the
investigation done by the AG, the majority of users appeared not to
have been verified or screened to block fraudulent accounts. In
other words, accounts that were not those of students