Smartphones Can't Cure Acne, FTC Rules 205
jfruhlinger writes "Your smartphone can send texts, surf the Web, and update your Facebook page, so it stands to reason that it can cure acne too, right? Well, maybe not. Two companies that marketed acne-cure apps have settled with the FTC and have been forced to take the apps off the market. (Colored light can kill acne-causing bacteria, but needs to be much more powerful than what a smartphone screen can put out.) Almost 15,000 people bought the apps."
only 15k people? (Score:3)
I'm actually surprised teens turned out to be that smart. That seems like a very low number of suckers to me.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:3)
Actually, I've found that the most wasteful people are the poor ones. The people I know living paycheck-to-paycheck mostly end up spending every dime on crap instead of keeping some for savings. As an example, I know someone that will go out and eat at an expensive restaurant ($30+ a person) right after getting paid, for their 20 hours a week minimum wage, then complain about not having much money left over for gas. Did I mention they have the latest iPhone, pay $80/mo for mobile service? They can barely afford a place to stay or eat, but they can afford all that, apparently.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
No Way!
People who are bad at managing their money tend to end up living paycheck-to-paycheck and running out of money.
What an amazing coincidence.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
If you do the things that make you rich, you will be rich. If you do the things that make you middle-class, you will be middle-class. If you do the things that make you poor, you will be poor!
Re:only 15k people? (Score:4, Insightful)
What a completely useless tautology.
Yes "if you do the things that make you X, you will be X". After all that's what "things that make you X" means by definition.
The problen is there us no X that will make you rich univerally. That garbage book is just full of things that happened to work in one particular time frame (along with the completely made up). How did all the people who took his advice and invested in real estate in 2006 do?
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
He was wrong on one count.
If you do the things that make you middle-class, you will be poor and unhappy.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
A lot of people think it is just coincidence. If you criticize the poor, they will cluck their tongues and suggest you remember that "There but for the grace of God go I."
Re:only 15k people? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
I do the same, except I've learned to turn that bright spot into a $17 bottle of Jack Daniels once a week. Far, far cheaper than $100 meals out, and I've managed to eek out a savings, too!
Yay, Jack Daniels!
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Actually, I've found that the most wasteful people are the poor ones.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up. This is so true it's tragic.
I interact with a lot of people at the low end of the income spectrum, and the very last thing any one of them will ever give up is the damn cell phone. Food, shelter, heat, transportation to work, who cares about any of that stuff? Normally you don't see this level of addiction unless crack or something is involved, and it's just tragic to see.
It's even more tragic to think about how the government is pissing my money away to feed and clothe these people, so they can waste what little they do earn on frivolous luxury items. I mean look, I started my adult life on welfare, and I'm not saying all welfare recipients are automatically worthless parasites. I'm just saying people who are on welfare should have some shame. Use your food stamps to buy Cheery-Ohs and Wheat-eez in bulk bags, and stretch that government assistance as far as you can. Don't stand there paying for your pork rinds with my money, talking on the phone with a shopping cart full of beer and cigarettes behind you. I earned that money you're pissing away by working my ass off, and I really don't appreciate seeing you light it on fire right in front of my face like that.
I think a little shame can be a good thing. I was mortified to have to resort to welfare, and the day my social worker told me I no longer qualified was one of the happiest days of my life. If you need it, use it, that's what it's there for, but try your best to get off, and don't give me that shit about how important it is that you have an iPhone for work.
/rant
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
I'm not saying all welfare recipients are automatically worthless parasites. I'm just saying people who are on welfare should have some shame.
No, you should never feel ashamed of your life.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
yup.. a very large percentage of the people living Below Poverty Line spend money on stuff like mobile phone wallpapers, ring tones and call back tones.
Most of those having more money just dont change the defaults, or download the free stuff
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
"All scams involve a movement of money from stupid people to smart people "
Smart people get scammed as well, and usually easier.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:3)
"All scams involve a movement of money from stupid people to smart people "
Smart people get scammed as well, and usually easier.
It really varies. People who are experienced at detecting scams are more likely to detect scams. And people who are smarter will me less susceptible to scams in their field, but (if they have less experience with scams because they tend to interact with more reputable people) will often be more susceptible to scams in unrelated areas.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
It's quite possible to build a device that can help with acne and isn't really much larger than a smartphone. Acne bacteria (and a number of other organisms that are responsible for other types of skin irritation) can be killed with UV light. You just need a bigger light. For someone who doesn't know the technical details and/or how much light it actually takes to see a measurable difference, it's not an unreasonable assumption that a company that sells a product with the claim that it can do enough to help with their acne isn't actually lying, especially not when they're citing dermatologists.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
It's quite possible to build a device that can help with acne and isn't really much larger than a smartphone. Acne bacteria (and a number of other organisms that are responsible for other types of skin irritation) can be killed with UV light. You just need a bigger light. For someone who doesn't know the technical details and/or how much light it actually takes to see a measurable difference, it's not an unreasonable assumption that a company that sells a product with the claim that it can do enough to help with their acne isn't actually lying, especially not when they're citing dermatologists.
Or you could get out in the sun for a few minutes each day?
I think you lost most slashdotters there.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
I'd say that desperate teenagers would do almost anything to get rid of acne.
The mind can rationalize almost everything when trying to achieve a dream like this one.
I would never call them dumb, just victims of a scam.
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
About 3,300 people paid US$0.99 for Acne Pwner on Google's Android Marketplace and about 11,600 people paid $1.99 for AcneApp through Apple's iTunes store, according to the FTC.
There you have it. Proof that iphone users are uglier and dumber than droid users.
-sent from my ipad using the slashdot pro app
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
Since Android has the "used by Geeks only" image, while the iPhone has the "just works, a shiny smartphone for the masses" image.
Its obvious
Re:only 15k people? (Score:2)
FTC doing their job... (Score:2)
how long was it available.......and how many people KNEW about it......
This was a good result--it's nice to the FTC doing their job and policing false advertising practices, at least a little. Complaints are relatively easy to make to them--and though most go unanswered, enough of them show patterns that the FTC will investigate.
What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Actually the article mentions red and blue light, so it sounds like visible light per the study, but it would have to be far more intense than anything a smartphone could ever produce:
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
And the devices will NEVER be able to produce the right wavelengths with intensity.
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Well, not with that attitude.
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
No, not with our current LCD standards.
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Just re-route main power to the deflector shields. That shit works.
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
Re:What colour is UV? (Score:2)
UV is also non-ionizing, but it is higher energy than visible light, and can break chemical bonds (which is not the same as being ionizing radiation).
You know what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
Can i have your stuff?
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
What are you waiting for? Do you need some Kavorkian wannabe to do it for you?
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
Because of all the people with bad skin?
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
There's an app for that.
smart teens? (Score:3)
Does that make them 'oxy-morons'?
Acne-causing bacteria? (Score:2)
Are we really sure bacteria is the CAUSE of acne? Sure, a lot of doctors seem to think this, but I've never seen any evidence suggesting bacteria is really to blame.
Re:Acne-causing bacteria? (Score:2)
My understanding is that we are really sure that bacteria are *NOT* the cause of acne. The cosmetic/drug industry has spent large sums of money on the issue on hopes of coming up with a "cure".
As I understand it what happens is that a reaction to testosterone causes the sweat in a hair folical to become stickier than normal. This neatly explains why it starts at pubeity. As a consequence there is a tendancy for the pore to become blocked easier. This neatly explains why good hygene can reduce the symptons. What then happens is that the sticky sweat building up in the blocked poor is an ideal breading ground for bacteria that can make it worse. This also explains why antibiotics can also reduce the symptons. However bacteria are not the cause of acne.
Unfortunately as far as I am aware this knowledge has only led so far to one drug, and it can only be prescribed by a specialist (at least in the UK) as it can have severe psycholoical side effects. It works by blocking all the "sweat" from being produced, which is something of a sledge hammer approach.
The first drug company to come up with an over the counter medicine to fix the root cause, aka the stickier than normal sweat will of course become fabuously wealthy.
Re:Acne-causing bacteria? (Score:2)
Wiki on Propionibacterium acnes [slashdot.org]
is a relatively slow growing, typically aerotolerant anaerobic gram positive bacterium (rod) that is linked to the skin condition acne... Preliminary research shows healthy pores are only colonized by P. acnes while unhealthy ones universally include the non-pore-resident Staphylococcus epidermidis, amongst other bacterial contaminants. Whether this is a root causality, just opportunistic & a side-effect, or a more complex pathological duality between P. acnes and this particular Staph is not known
So it sounds like bacteria are a necessary part of it.
Re:Acne-causing bacteria? (Score:2)
Activation of TLR2 makes you hypersensitive to lipopolysaccharide, which is part of the bacterial cell wall. So your immune system develops hypersensitivity to normal conditions.
I was on prednisone for over a year for autoimmune problems and you can develop some very nasty acne.
The bitch of it is, because prednisone is also an excellent anti-inflammatory, tapering off it makes the acne increase dramatically... because you have both the increased TLR2 activation and increased inflammation.
Re:Acne-causing bacteria? (Score:2)
Acne is caused by the effects of hormones on sebaceous glands.
The 70's called, they want their mystery back.
Also:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/acne/DS00169/DSECTION=causes [mayoclinic.com]
Now, what cause an increases sebum production? well that's the question now.
Had to be done (Score:2)
"Your smartphone can send texts, surf the Web, and update your Facebook page...
Homeopathy (Score:3, Insightful)
So how come they get fined while producers of homeopathic "medicines" don't?
I'm asking seriously.
Re:Homeopathy (Score:2)
Maybe they should have just marketed this as a 'cheek-warming' app, with a notice 'acne-curing effects are not scientifically proven'. People would still buy it to cure acne.
Re:Homeopathy (Score:2)
If you don't claim in advertisements (including on the label of the object) that it has medical benefits, you can sell almost any vaguely-safe crap you want.
Re:Homeopathy (Score:2)
DSHEA. [aaos.org] Essentially, the supplements industry bought off Congress and had them pass a law exempting themselves from FDA regulation of their claims as long as they avoided treating specific conditions and diseases. You can't cure acne but I'm sure you can "promote skin health" or whatever.
Re:Homeopathy (Score:2)
Because homeopathic remedies are sold as 'diet supplements', which are regulated as foodstuffs rather than as drugs.
Wait, what are they saying? (Score:2)
Smartphones Can't Cure Acne, FTC Rules
So is the FTC telling us that smartphones are unable to cure acne or that they're not going to allow them to do it? What is this, a guv'ment conspiracy to protect the benzoyl peroxide cartel?
Sucker born every click. (Score:2)
"...Almost 15,000 people bought the apps."
Ah, you misspelled "dumbasses".
Cripes, where's Red Forman when you need him...
A smart phone.... (Score:2)
The PFY ... (Score:2)
as I have always said... (Score:2)
Re:as I have always said... (Score:2)
... stupid people shouldn't have money anyway.
Well i think that's stupid, so give me all your money.
snake oil (Score:2)
That's what it was called 2 centuries ago. And people will be selling it as long as there are idiots who are buying it.
"settlement" with the FTC (Score:2)
(acne killers): But why? It is a medicinal app.
(FTC): Take this hokum down yesterday. There will be no other warning.
(acne killers): Okay, you got me.
Sales figures (Score:2)
Almost 15,000 people bought the apps.
There. Making stupid apps for iOS will not make you a millionaire.
My anti-acne app (Score:2)
Wash your face properly with soap and water.
Go out in the sun.
Try to eat some food that isn't fried
Have a shower after you've finished wanking.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Only if by "hold" you mean "stick in their eyes"
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Don't laugh, it actually happens.
40 years or so ago, I was soldering a radio kit, when my kid sister came up next to me. She startled me, and my hand jerked. A blob of solder went into her eye.
Luckily, she was fine, but I've been gun-shy around soldering irons ever since.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
If you look carefully on the back of my hand, you can still see the scar from where I accidentally raised it into the hot part of a soldering gun once. That said, I can't imagine somebody being stupid enough to do it intentionally. You'd feel the heat by the time your skin was an inch away, and you'd pull back almost by reflex unless you were moving really rapidly as I was.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Nope, I grabbed the wrong end of a soldering iron once (not intentionally, of course) - the reflex action that makes you jerk back from hot things is far too slow to save you from a heat source that intense. Man, the blisters that raised!
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Agreed. Heat sensitivity is quite slow, at least for me. I haven't done a study or measured it empirically, but there is a definite discernible gap between the time when I feel the stimulus and the time I jerk away--at least a tenth of a second, possibly substantially more.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:3)
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
With their fancy iPhones and Nintendos, they wouldn't know which end of soldering iron to hold.
Instead they know how to network their computers, make web pages, and produce/edit/publish the movies they've made..
Yeah, today's kids aren't tech savvy at all.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Put hot thing next to solder, let it melt, move on.
Pretty much common sense, I don't believe there was a single person in my electronics class in highschool that needed to "learn" how to solder.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
Pretty much common sense, I don't believe there was a single person in my electronics class in highschool that needed to "learn" how to solder.
How much solder is too much? How much is not enough? How often do you clean the tip? Do you clean it before you shut it off? What does a good solder joint look like? More important, what does a bad solder joint look like? How can you tell a bad solder joint when using ROHS solder and they all look like bad joints?
How do you remove bridges? How do you keep from creating them in the first place? How do you solder SMD? How do you unsolder SMD? Do you "fill in the hole" when the hole is larger than the pin? How do you make a via? How close do you clip the leads after soldering?
For hobby operations, it's pretty much "common sense". For commercial users, learning to solder is important.
Which hot thing? (Score:2)
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
How do you solder between two boards? 5? How do you solder on a 64 pin chip and not ruin it or the board? How do you check for cold solder joint?
I took a 2 weeks course a soldering. The final was to soldier together a 5 layer board and have it work to spec.
3 of us out of about 20 passed. That was over 20 year ago, and I still can replace components on a motherboard. Mostly I use it to replace transistors in 40 year old amplifiers. Once, I replaced a component in an old piece of aircraft equipment without removing the board from the case.
see: NASA-STD-8739.3(.7)
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
I'm planning on teaching my kid to solder just after CPU + Heatsink installation, and before C. So somewhere around 4 years old. My kid's going to pwn me when he's 9. My own personal debugger.
Spoken like a man that has no kids.The reality is for the first 2 years unless you're lucky and has a kid that sleeps you'll be too tired and sleep deprived to do much of anything. Most you'll manage is setting them up with a couple of interesting computer games and teaching them where some of the keys are (great way to teach alphabet).and how to use a mouse.
I'm sure there have been exceptional 4 year olds who've learnt to program, but most kids won't be up to learning to sound out words at 4 let alone reading and writing in any kind of language. Amazing what they can do without language skills though.
My son's 3 and he's quite bright for his age though not a genius (and I say this thankfully - ever heard of a happy genius?). I'd never trust him with a knife at this age let alone a soldering iron. He can swing a bat or club but is quite prone to accidentally hitting his 1 year old sister.
Kids are not something that takes up a little of your spare time. They take up every waking hour while you're with them. You have to put their needs first all the time. Be prepared for that or don't breed. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, and I'm going to enjoy watching them grow up and helping them learn.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
I learned on my own with teach-yourself-BASIC books and data tapes when I was in first grade (and I probably could have learned sooner, but we didn't own a computer until then). (I then proceeded to terrify the folks at a music conference a year or two later when their program didn't work, they couldn't find the bug, and I proceeded to fix it, but that's another anecdote.)
I'm quite confident that most kids of above-average intelligence could learn programming at that age, given a language that's easy enough to learn (i.e. procedural programming, not OOP, nor assembly, nor functional programming or any other such insanity). It's more a question of motivation and interest than anything else.
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
He can swing a bat or club but is quite prone to accidentally hitting his 1 year old sister.
Are you sure it's an accident?
Re:Our "tech savvy" kids (Score:2)
At 4 he did a do simple programming, and could build and walk you through basic circuits. Maybe he is a genius, or maybe you are vastly underestimating what small children are capable of.
He is definitely a happy kid that makes friends easily, and there are three things that are sure to get him giggling. Spongebob, Phinius and Ferb, and watching math equations on Kahn Acadamy. The reason so many genius kids are miserable is because their parents and other adults see a really smart kid and start to push. They push and push and tell them that no matter how good they do, they are not doing good enough. They do this until the kid is miserable and frequently cracks. It isn't the being really smart that makes them miserable. It is the way the adults (and some kids) treat them because they are smart. Really smart kids just need to have it explained to them that people who are not as smart feel uncomfortable about not being as smart. So, you keep it a family secret. When kids (or their parents) who are uncomfortable with you being smart are over to play, you leave the chess boards, word games, and other intellectual games in the closet, and use that time to go throw a ball, or dig a hole in the back yard.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
These were probably children that were misled. Everyone was a child at one point, they need guidance not your bullshit. What we should do is toss the assholes that make these scams into the clink for a couple decades.
Re:at some point... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
No, we need both. We need people to be able to detect bullshit on their own and we need to have the law deal with the scammers.
Re:at some point... (Score:5, Insightful)
You need to learn not to fall for it, not have people try to hide the whole world full of scammers from you. The same ability to sort out bullshit applies to prescription drugs, diets, vitamin supplements,
mission statements, campaign promises, sermons...
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
You need to learn not to fall for it, not have people try to hide the whole world full of scammers from you. The same ability to sort out bullshit applies to prescription drugs, diets, vitamin supplements, mission statements, campaign promises, sermons...
Vendor product datasheets, quantity of sexual partners, tax returns...
Huh. I guess everyone lies.
Re:at some point... (Score:3)
These were probably children that were misled. Everyone was a child at one point, they need guidance not your bullshit. What we should do is toss the assholes that make these scams into the clink for a couple decades.
You're faulting people for exploiting the weaknesses and insecurities of others? I can't even imagine what Television would be like without it.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
Everyone was a child at one point, they need guidance not your bullshit.
I don't think it's just children that need guidance. People, including adults, seem to fall for scams all the time.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
Well, here's a list of 14,999 people (and one smart guy with a lawyer) who have already proven themselves to be even more stupid than I thought possible.
The only thing I don't want to do is support them on the dole. Beyond that, go ahead and rip them all off again.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
Going broke doesn't make dumb people smarter. Especially with the app that was developed by a Dermatologist: these people are being told by individuals who represent themselves as experts that the product works. If they do a quick google search for "color light kill acne", they get pages and pages of legitimate-looking results. In the United States, we regulate medical claims specifically because it is unreasonable to expect everyone to hold the level of expertise that would allow them to determine the validity of such claims.
Allowing fraud wouldn't necessarily result in a smarter population, but it would provide a financial reward for being a more clever fraudster.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
"In the United States, we regulate medical claims specifically because it is unreasonable to expect everyone to hold the level of expertise that would allow them to determine the validity of such claims."
That wouldn't be an issue if our educational system hadn't been gutted.
When homeless meth heads know better than the general populace which medical claims are substantiated and which ones are not, you KNOW there is a problem with our educational system.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
You know, before they cut funding big time back in the mid-90s, we actually got to go see some of this stuff as part of class field trips.
Google's Android Marketplace (Score:2)
At some point we need to stop protecting people from mind-boggling levels of stupidity, or it just allows people to get away with being even *dumber*.
Isn't that what the "freedom" of Google Marketplace is all about?
Re:Google's Android Marketplace (Score:2)
You're right. Stupid people clearly belong in the iPhone market where they can be protected from their stupidity.
Oh, that's interesting. Reading TFA (yes, this is Slashdot, but go with it) and following a few links indicates that "AcneApp" was an iPhone Market app [go.com]. Never mind. Stupid people belong in the iPhone market, but they won't be any better protected. Just less free. That's OK, I guess; non-stupids don't much need them around anyway.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
We're all stupid at something no matter how much knowledge and experience we acquire. (In fact, it's a well known adage that smart people are the most likely to fall for a scam" [thedailybeast.com].)
While your statement is appealingly righteous, the downside is that the unscrupulous run up costs for the rest of us, no matter what intelligence level they target. I'd rather they not get away with it, even if it spares people the hard-knocks education you advocate. For a society to function anywhere near optimal, the vast majorities of its transactions must be conducted in good faith by all parties.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
Not only that, there are some pretty remarkable apps out there.
Magic Mover [appshopper.com], an app that vibrates the phone in a particular way to push stuff around. Or just have the phone move in a particular direction, just like in the old days where you could design a series of disk accesses to "walk" the disk drive across the floor.
Blower - real air [appshopper.com] plays a specially modulated sound that moves air around.
With strange and wonderful apps like that, it's easy to see how some other apps can proclaim to cure acne or other things.
Re:at some point... (Score:2)
smart people are the most likely to fall for a scam
I wouldn't say that they're very smart at being able to tell something is a scam, then. And I think whether someone is "smart" or not is difficult to determine to begin with.
Re:user reviews (Score:2)
Re:Headline? (Score:2)
Re:Awesome use of government resources. (Score:2)
+1