Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday January 28 2017, @04:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the breathalyzer-blows dept.

A company that makes consumer-grade "breathalyzers" has settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission due to the inherent inaccuracy of the devices:

If you're trusting a personal breathalyzer to protect you from a drunk driving conviction, think again, since the devices might not work as advertised. In the past few years, various companies have begun marketing personal breathalyzers that fit in your pocket and can report blood alcohol content (BAC) levels to a smartphone. El Reg's Vulture West hacks in San Francisco carried out a group test on such devices, which provided much merriment.

Breathometer, which was one of the devices we tested, has just agreed to settle charges brought by the FTC – America's trade watchdog – that claims the company made about its breathalyzers weren't backed up by scientific evidence and that users could be dangerously misled about how sober they were.

"People relied on the defendant's products to decide whether it was safe to get behind the wheel," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Overstating the accuracy of the devices was deceptive – and dangerous." According to the FTC, Breathometer sold more than $5m worth of its alcohol testing devices and claimed that they were "law-enforcement grade products" that were subject to "government lab-grade testing." This wasn't the case, the FTC claims, and alleges that the company was aware that its devices routinely reported lower BAC levels than were accurate, but continued to sell them.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29 2017, @01:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29 2017, @01:18AM (#460014)

    Yay for corner cases.
    If you are that diabetic and you've had a drink, you are fucked anyway.