Logitech fined for bogus bug-busting keyboard ad

Misleading adverts for a biological bug killing keyboard violated federal law and earned its maker a six-figure fine. Claims that the USB keyboard protected users from microbes and bacteria have landed manufacturer Logitech a $261,000 fine, after the US Environmental Protection Agency ruled that Logi's promotional material …

[Get the puck outa here]

You mean

Using my antibacterial keyboard while jogging on the spot in my ass improving sneakers is not going to do me any good at all?

[John G Imrie]

Well if you download my ...

new nutritional software from 911.scams.com and leave your webcam turned on, at least you'll get your 15mins of fame.

[Ralthor]

Nope.

But depending on your ass it may do a lot to raise flagging attention.

[Shades]

Why just Logitech?

I'm looking at a sticker on my Samsung NC10 that says it has a Silver Nano Keyboard and I'm pretty sure that was touted as an anti-bacterial keyboard.

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed

My old samsung rf700 had exactley the same "feature"...

[Arthur Jackson]

That would be the Samsung " Hawkwind " you have there.

[Jarrad]

Well done to the EPA!

Now when will the FDA take responsibility and regulate homeopathic and other alternative 'medicines'? People buy these under the impression they actually do something, when most are nothing more than placebos and a waste of money and hope.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlike "Real Medicine"

Which is now little more than doctors pushing whatever pills Big Pharma want to move.

[Jarrad]

I think you're confusing doctors and 'Big Pharma' with homeopaths and the UK's billion-pound alternative remedies industry, where most treatments are no more effective than placebo - and often cost much more than more traditional, proven treatments.

Sure, there are bad apples all around. But at least evidence based medine is, uh, based on evidence. Adverse effects are closely monitored, and you can be sure a drug has been tested for safety* and efficay before being 'pushed'.

* That said, the safety of homeopathic pills isn't an issue- because you'd be extremely 'lucky' to find a pill with a single molecule of active ingredient! But people spend money thinking these are effective, when that money could be much better spent on elsewhere. They also confuse people who may otherwise have gone for a proven treatment from doing so - which itself makes the industry (if not the pills themselves ) unsafe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know anything about the UK, I live in the land of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and chevrolet but I do think you should google "evidence based medicine" as it is not what most physicians do over here.

In the land of the free it's hard not to see a witch doctor.

[rciafardone]

Ahh a mexican. Como estas?

The post is required, and must contain letters.

[Captain DaFt]

Note to self:

Modify the ad on "Self sanitizing phone" to merely state that it keeps itself germ free, and drop the claim that it will stop phone borne plagues.

[Graham Marsden]

"Self sanitizing phone"

What? And put all those Telephone Sanitizers out of a job (and onto the B-Ark)...?!

[Suburban Inmate]

If they're making a wireless set, I hear Dell has some antibacterial Li-Ion batteries they want shifting....

[TRT]

I hear those batteries are self-sterilizing as well. Autoclave style.

[Anonymous Coward]

Autoclave style....

hhehehehhehheh......

[Destroy All Monsters]

So why don't they go up against Obamacare?

On another note, I can safely claim that adding some Cobalt 60 to the keyboard plastics is guaranteed to decrease the presence of fungi and microbes.

Cobalt 60 - go with the glow [tm]!

[K. Adams]

Wrong kind of virus?

Seems like they're stretching their anti-malware claims a bit too far...

[Stuart Halliday]

Wrong chemical

Needs to be coated with Copper to kill off germs....