Privacy Information - Personal privacy advocacy and information from Consumer Action

Alerts

Consumer Action's Alerts highlight trends in consumer complaints, scams, outrageous fees and other notable consumer information.

Job applicants and credit checks (Jan 27, 2012)
An increasing number of states have enacted (or are planning to enact) laws that restrict the use of credit reports…
More .coms, .nets, .orgs? FTC warns about potential for scams (Dec 21, 2011)
The Federal Trade Commission today sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization…
Heads up for tax changes (Dec 05, 2011)
The National Society of Accountants (NSA) offers this checklist of tax provisions slated for removal at the end of 2011…

Privacy (Mar 23, 2011)
NEW A "Get out of Jail Free Card" for corporate privacy violators? Consumer Action opposes AB 1219 (Perea), which would…

NCL warns of bogus car advertising schemes (Dec 01, 2011)
Our friends at the National Consumers League (NCL) Fraud Center have alerted consumers to a situation that…
Wire transfer requests may be a 'red flag' for fraud (Nov 01, 2011)
Consumer Action is warning consumers that requests to wire money through Western Union or MoneyGram are a “red flag” that…
Watch out for government grant scams (Oct 18, 2011)
Consumer Action is warning consumers about a current scam that offers individuals a “government grant” in exchange for an up-front…

2012 brings new consumer laws in California (Dec 30, 2011)
Thanks to our friends at the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs for compiling this great list of the…
2011 consumer laws in the Golden State (Jan 21, 2011)
The Los Angeles Department of Consumer Affairs has prepared a nifty run-down of California consumer protection laws that went into…
Arbitration no shield for debt collectors (Jul 08, 2009)
The Public Justice Access to Justice Campaign and Mandatory Arbitration Abuse Prevention Project has helped win a…

The Opt-Out Fee (Oct 02, 2006)
For years the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), an organization of businesses that send out bulk unsolicited marketing communications, has let…