News

2019

December

11

• FB rebuffs DOJ request to abandon plans to encrypt chats. Facebook has rebuffed a request from Attorney General William P. Barr that it halt its plan to deploy strong encryption across its messaging apps, calling the U.S. government’s pursuit of a &ldquo

06

• Uber says 3,045 sexual assaults reported in U.S. rides. Uber said that it had reports of 3,045 sexual assaults during its rides in the U.S. in 2018, with nine people murdered and 58 killed in crashes, in its first study detailing unsafe incidents on the ride-hailing

05

• China uses DNA to map faces. Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.

02

• Consumer Action INSIDER - December 2019. The December 2019 issue of the Consumer Action INSIDER announces Wells Fargo's funding of Consumer Action's innovative new FinTech initiative to help underserved consumers reach their financial goals; gives an overview of our latest Consumer Action News edition on the prescription drug affordability crisis; informs readers of what action to take if their college has been closed and they still owe student loan debt (particularly if it was a predatory for-profit school); updates readers on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's work; and more.

• Holiday scams are heavy on naughty, lacking in nice. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. But for consumers, it’s also the most dangerous. From gift card rackets to online fraud, consumers are under near-constant assault amid what some

November

26

• Democrats unveil new online privacy bill, promising tough penalties. Senate Democrats proposed tough new punishments for Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley tech giants that mishandle their users’ personal data, unveiling a sweeping new online privacy bill that aims to provide people their

• Fraudsters cost her $6,500, and she had to hire computer expert to prove it. Julie Poncela lost thousands of dollars as a result of fraud, but the bank didn’t believe her until she hired a computer expert to prove she was hacked.

25

• Hospital alarms prove a noisy misery for patients. Tens of thousands of alarms shriek, beep and buzz every day in every U.S. hospital. All sound urgent, but few require immediate attention or get it. Intended to keep patients safe alerting nurses to

• Use this guide to fight back against online tracking. Protecting your digital privacy is a never-ending process that requires constant vigilance. But each of these steps is worth the time investment, and perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind: Don’t

23

• Consumer watchdog downplaying a major Obama-era tool. The director of the country’s primary consumer watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), downplayed the role of the complaint database in its operations and even its utility as a major tool at

21

• Uber embraces videotaping rides, raising privacy concerns. For several months, some Uber passengers in Texas have been recorded on video as they have been driven to their destinations. The video recordings are part of a broad initiative at the ride-hailing company to

• Millions in missing paychecks and workers left in the lurch. Nicole Ingram learned that her payroll check for working as a nursing assistant in New Jersey, which had been deposited into her account, was being withdrawn. Thousands of workers across the country received a similar

20

• Police can keep Ring camera video forever, share with anyone. Police officers who download videos captured by homeowners’ Ring doorbell cameras can keep them forever and share them with whomever they’d like without providing evidence of a crime, the Amazon-owned firm told

• As robocalls surge, feds scramble to act. A suspicious campaign bombarded Americans with an estimated 288 million robocalls pitching health insurance in October, according to the call-blocking smartphone app YouMail, contributing to the record 5.7 billion robocalls made nationwide last month. To experts, the

• Thousands of Disney Plus accounts hacked, sold online. For sale: Disney Plus account, barely used. Within hours of the streaming service’s bumpy rollout last week, hackers commandeered user accounts: locking out owners, changing log-in credentials and, in many cases, selling them

• Nebraska comparte expedientes de conductores con Censo. Nebraska es el primer estado en reconocer públicamente que compartirá sus archivos de licencias de conducir con la Oficina del Censo, ahora que la agencia federal trata de acatar las órdenes

• Amnistía Internacional: Facebook y Google abusan de derechos. Amnistía Internacional emitió una dura acusación contra las corporaciones de internet dominantes en el mundo, argumentando en un nuevo reporte que Google y Facebook deberían ser obligadas a

19

• Vicepresidenta de Google, también preocupada por contenido. Google está manteniendo muchas conversaciones internas ante la preocupación de los consumidores por el acceso a los datos y la manipulación de algoritmos, dijo su vicepresidenta, Jacqueline Fuller.

18

• Some Fitbit users, who don't trust Google, are getting rid of the devices. Several Fitbit users told CNBC they started searching for an alternative to their fitness trackers as soon as they heard of Google’s acquisition of the company. They cited a distrust of Google&rsquo

• Facebook, Google donate heavily to privacy advocacy groups. Few companies have more riding on proposed privacy legislation than Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. To try to steer the bill their way, the giant advertising technology companies spend millions of dollars