News

2022

July

04

• Google: To protect women, collect less data about everyone. Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, anything Google knows about you could be acquired by police in states where abortion is now illegal. There is something Google could

June

22

• Justice Department and Meta settle landmark housing discrimination case. Facebook-owner Meta agreed to revamp the social network’s targeted advertising system under a sweeping settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, after the company was accused of allowing landlords to market their housing

21

• Customers say banks refuse to pay when money is stolen on Zelle. In recent years, payment apps like Zelle, Venmo and Cash App have become the preferred way for millions of customers to transfer money from one person to another. Banks argue that they shouldn’t

15

• What parents need to know about child ID theft. Kids usually don’t find out they’ve been victims of identity theft until they take a big life step like applying for federal student aid or buying their first car, says the

14

• Doctor check-in software harvests your health data. There’s a burgeoning business in harvesting our patient data to target us with ultra-personalized ads. Patients who think medical information should come from a doctor — rather than a pharmaceutical marketing department —

02

• You can ask Google to take your personal data out of its search results. Google is offering a new tool to anyone who doesn't want their phone number, email or street address and other personal information to be found online: People can ask for their contact details to

• Nobody reads privacy policies. How to give us real privacy choices.. I applaud Twitter for putting effort into being more understandable. The same goes for Facebook, which last week rewrote its infamous privacy policy to a secondary-school reading level — but also tripled its length to 12,000

May

26

• Twitter pays $150 million penalty for breaking privacy promises again. It’s FTC 101. Companies can’t tell consumers they will use their personal information for one purpose and then use it for another. But according to the FTC, that’s the kind

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - May 2022. This month's INSIDER features stories about our recent activities, including a webinar exploring the impact of COVID on small businesses and a project using FinTech to improve financial wellness. Hotline Chronicles relates a woman's difficulty in receiving her income tax refund after attempting to have it sent to a prepaid card. And, we announce new settlements in our Class Action Database.

April

18

• Find out and fix what big data says about you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies that’s currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — the list includes 22

06

• Nueva publicación ayudará a la comunidad hispana en California a ejercer sus derechos de privacidad (Guía sobre los derechos según la ley de privacidad de California (California Consumer Privacy Act) ahora disponible en español). Se ha publicado en español la guía de Consumer Action y Consumer Federation of America diseñada para informar a los californianos sobre sus derechos según la ley de privacidad California Consumer Privacy Act. La guía, que alienta al consumidor a ejercer sus derechos, está disponible sin costo alguno para fines educativos.

• Nueva publicación ayudará a la comunidad hispana en California a ejercer sus derechos de privacidad (Guía sobre los derechos según la ley de privacidad de California (California Consumer Privacy Act) ahora disponible en español). Se ha publicado en español la guía de Consumer Action y Consumer Federation of America diseñada para informar a los californianos sobre sus derechos según la ley de privacidad California Consumer Privacy Act. La guía, que alienta al consumidor a ejercer sus derechos, está disponible sin costo alguno para fines educativos.

05

• Your digital footprint: It's bigger than you realize. A few years ago, Ken Crum started getting uncomfortable with how much of his life seemed to be online. The long-time computer programmer was particularly concerned by what companies appeared to know about him.

03

• New resource to help Hispanic Californians learn about and exercise their privacy rights (Guide to rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act now available in Spanish). A guide developed by Consumer Action and the Consumer Federation of America designed to educate Californians about and encourage them to exercise key rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act has been translated into Spanish. The guide is freely available for educational purposes.

March

15

• How California is building the nation’s first privacy police. Ashkan Soltani faces the daunting task of overseeing the first government body in the United States with the sole job of regulating how Google, Facebook, Amazon and other companies collect and use data from millions

February

28

• Cómo protegerse de las estafas más frecuentes. Las estafas por mensaje de texto, correo electrónico, Facebook y otros medios están en auge. Aquí te mostramos cómo evitar que un estafador te engañe.

16

• Senators unveil children’s online safety bill. The Kids Online Safety Act would require online platforms to provide parents and minors younger than 16 with “easy-to-use” tools to keep them safe, limit screen time and protect their data. It would demand

09

• Contractor to drop facial recognition requirement for all government agencies. The private contractor ID.me said it will drop the facial recognition requirement in the identity-verification software used by 30 states and 10 federal agencies, a major reversal following a backlash due to the technology’s

08

• Equifax breach settlement: Money for some, free monitoring for all. Equifax will pay up to $425 million in restitution to those directly impacted by the massive data breach of the credit bureau in 2017. A federal court gave final approval to the class-action lawsuit settlement in mid-January.

January

27

• Experian, Equifax, TransUnion rarely act on credit file complaints, report says. If you spot a mistake on your credit report and contact the credit bureau, there’s a good chance nothing will happen. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion together provided relief when alerted to errors less