Advertising in general often works by making you, the consumer, feel deficient in some way. Your laundry isn’t clean enough; buy our detergent instead. Your body isn’t thin enough; try our gym instead. Your dog isn’t organic enough; buy this food instead. But getting super granular and hitting teenagers — kids — specifically when they’re down is something else. [More]
Data & Privacy
AT&T Users Have No Way To Know How Much Data They’re Tethering, Despite 10GB Cap
By 4.28.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
When AT&T resurrected unlimited data plans, it also introduced a feature it had shunned the first time around: letting subscribers use their phone as a mobile hotspot (AKA “tethering”), but only up to 10 GB per month. But there’s a flaw in AT&T’s execution that prevents users from knowing how much tethering data they’ve actually used. [More]
New Home Depot Data Leak Exposes Gap In Consumer Privacy Protection
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 4.28.17
Recently, Consumerist received an anonymous tip pointing to an internet address that hosted digital images of bathtubs, garage doors, kitchen countertops, contractors at work on various projects, and customers picking out and paying for products in a home-center store. The site also hosted 13 Excel spreadsheets of customer records, including the full names, phone numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses of approximately 8,000 people, as well as other information chronicling the apparent installation complaints of each customer. [More]
Google, Facebook Employees Targeted In $100M Phishing Scam
By 4.27.17
When the Justice Department recently said that two major tech companies had paid out a total of $100 million to a scammer posing as a hardware manufacturer, it chose to not name the businesses that had been conned. But now, both Google and Facebook are confirming that they were the ones victimized by this phishing scheme. [More]
Inventor Of World Wide Web: Gutting Net Neutrality Would Lets ISPs “Pick Winners And Losers”
By 4.26.17
Earlier today, FCC Chair Ajit Pai revealed his plan to scuttle existing regulations for internet service providers and replace them with promises from the industry that they won’t do anything bad. It is all in the name of innovation, declared Pai, but the innovator who created the World Wide Web and the very first website, is calling the Chairman out. [More]
Chipotle Reveals Payment System Data Breach (Will Also Start Selling Dessert)
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Burrito chain Chipotle is just beginning to rebound after a number of high-profile food borne illnesses, but last night the company revealed a bit of not-great news: Its payment system was hacked for several weeks. [More]
Visa Under Investigation In Ohio For Debit Card Verification Practices
By 4.21.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Visa has revealed that at least one state attorney general’s office is looking into several aspects of the company’s debit card practices. [More]
Google Home Now Recognizes Specific Users’ Voices, Allows For Multiple Accounts
By 4.20.17
In a move to differentiate its Google Home voice-activated assistant from competitors like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Microsoft’s Clippy (yes, we know it’s Cortana, but we prefer Clippy), Google has tweaked its Google Home assistant to allow for multiple users, each of whom can supposedly be uniquely identified by their voice. [More]
MasterCard Testing Chip-And-Fingerprint Payment Verification System
By 4.20.17
While many consumers are likely just getting used to their more secure, but far from perfect, chip-and-signature payment system and others are beginning to use a chip-and-PIN system, MasterCard is testing yet another secure transaction option: chip-and-fingerprint. [More]
Google Reportedly Planning To Build Ad-Blocker Into Chrome
By 4.20.17
Unless you work in the advertising industry, chances are you hate online ads that slow down, interrupt, or just plain ruin your browsing experience. That’s why the use of ad-blocking technology has soared in recent years. But would Google, which makes a mountain of money off web ads, actually build an ad-blocker directly into its Chrome browser? [More]
Cybersecurity Startup Used Unauthorized Hospital Data To Sell Others On Its Services
By 4.19.17
Companies that provide back-end online services often use live demonstrations to woo new clients or entice investors, but they often either run a simulation using dummy information or have permission to use an existing client’s operations. That apparently wasn’t the case for one multibillion-dollar cybersecurity startup, who reportedly spent years showing off unauthorized peeks into the network of one of their healthcare clients. [More]
Breach At Holiday Inn Owner InterContinental May Include More Than 1,000 Hotels, Not 12
By 4.19.17
InterContinental Hotels Group, which operates chains like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, recently admitted that the payment systems in some of its restaurants and bars had been compromised, and released a list of 12 affected locations. It turns out that the list was short by well over 1,000. [More]
Customer Says Bose Wireless Headphones Are Tracking What You Listen To & Sharing That Info Without Permission
By 4.19.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Listening to music on headphones is supposed to be a very private experience; just you and your tunes, minding your own business. Yet a new lawsuit claims that Bose is improperly collecting and sharing information about users of certain wireless headsets. [More]
Now The Federal Government Is Warning Against Scammy Nintendo Switch Emulators
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Almost immediately after Nintendo released its new Switch gaming console, videos and banner ads touted emulators that could let you play Switch games on your PC, meaning you don’t have to pay the $300 retail price. Problem is: There currently aren’t any freely available, legitimate emulators. This hasn’t stopped hopeful Switch fans from downloading these apps anyway. After multiple warnings from journalists and tech security companies went unheeded, the Federal Trade Commission is officially advising gamers to not fall for this con. [More]
Anova Reverses Mandatory Accounts For Some Cooks Using The App
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Anova, maker of a popular sous vide cooking device, recently irked many of its customers by requiring that they create accounts — and share personal information — with the company just to use the cooker’s companion app. Anova has apparently heard these complaints and decided to drop this requirement… soon. [More]
Killing Privacy Is Fine Because “Nobody’s Got To Use The Internet,” House Rep Says
By 4.17.17
From a distance, it can often be easy to criticize Congress as being out of touch, no matter what members are actually doing or what policies they’re proposing. But every once in a while, you get a response so staggeringly clueless you wonder if a lawmaker is living on the same planet you are. [More]
College Professor Says Walmart Called Him A Toilet Cleaner On Fishing License
By 4.17.17
A college professor in Montana is accusing Walmart of libel, after he says the store deliberately listed his profession as “CLEAN TOILETS” on a state-issued fishing license. [More]
Comcast Customer Not Thrilled To Find His Bedroom Cable Box Is Named The “F- Palace”
By 4.14.17
A Comcast customer says he was mortified to find out — through his pre-teen son, no less — that, according to the Comcast website, the set-top box in the family’s master bedroom has the delightfully profane name of “F- Palace.” [More]
