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Tech

The FTC Charges a 'Brain Training'-Like 'Vision' App for False Advertising

Can training your eyes actually improve your vision? And should the FTC decide on what’s science or not?

The Federal Trade Commission has reached a $150,000 settlement with Carrot Neurotechnology, the company behind eye-training app Ultimeyes for advertising that the app would, according to scientific studies, improve vision. The FTC says that the studies, one of which was conducted by Aaron Seitz, a professor at University of California Riverside and co-owner of the company, weren't scientific.

"The proposed order also prohibits [companies] from misrepresenting any scientific research, and it requires them to clearly disclose any connections with anyone conducting or participating in scientific research they cite as substantiation for their claims, and with anyone endorsing their products," the statement read.

The app claimed that it would improve vision through a number of training exercises similar to Nintendo's Brain Training and a slew of other brain training games on the market that often draw marketing points from studies with weak substantiation. Ultimeyes is sold on the Android and iOS marketplaces for $9.99, a price that Seitz notes barely covers the cost of developing the app.

"It's a complicated situation where I think that the FTC doesn't understand the research and the field involved and is actually, in this case, making a mistake," Seitz told me.

Seitz had to pay $75,000 out of pocket for the FTC's counts of false claims, and he said he hasn't received a cent from actual sales. In addition, he said the FTC discounted the studies on the basis that they didn't use double-blind trials, which impose rigorous objectivity on both experiment conductors and subjects.

"This is a stronger bar than the FDA has, and it ignores the entire literature of neuropsychology and neuroscience," he told me. "It's one thing to go after companies, but it's another thing to go after individuals. Not a single cent have I gotten from this work."