Despite previous failures, Congress just keeps on churning through bills that propose to enhance digital security at the cost of digital privacy. The latest in the series sailed through the Senate with wide approval this week, kicking off another wave of privacy concerns. [More]
Government Policy
System For Recalling Defective Tires Is “Broken,” Says Federal Safety Agency
By 10.27.15
When a manufacturer recalls a vehicle for a safety defect, they’re required to contact owners of the affected models and provide a remedy for the issue free of charge. But federal investigators say this sort of smooth recall just isn’t possible for tires because the current tire recall system is “completely broken.” [More]
New Campus Banking Rules Hope To Protect Students From High Prepaid & Debit Card Fees
By 10.27.15
Back in May, the Department of Education proposed rules to govern college prepaid and debit cards in order to afford students proper protections from excess fees and other harmful practices. Fast forward five months, and those rules have are now finalized. [More]
GM Recalls 1.4M Cars Over Fire Risk For The Fourth Time
By 10.27.15
For the fourth time in eight years, General Motors is recalling a number of older vehicles because the engine compartment can catch fire when drops of oil overheat. [More]
New Rule Bans E-Cigarettes From Checked Baggage
By 10.27.15
After more than 26 incidents in six years in which e-cigarettes have caused fires or explosions on planes, a new federal rule is set to go into effect banning the devices from being left in checked baggage. [More]
Sale Of Commercial Supply Business Could Let Staples-Office Depot Merger Go Through
By 10.26.15
One of the barriers to the formation of the StaplesMaxDepot office-supply Voltron has been the commercial supply businesses that both companies run: in addition to running retail stores, they both also do business delivering office supplies to corporate clients. One possibility could let the mega-merger go forward: Staples could sell its commercial supply business to competitor Essendant. [More]
Scammers Who Defrauded Scam Victims Barred From Scamming Anyone Else
By 10.26.15
Imagine you’ve been a victim of that old “woke up in a bathtub with my kidney gone” urban legend. As you stumble out of the hotel in urgent need of medical care, you come across a helpful doctor who will tend to your wounds… only to wake up in another tub with another missing organ. Replace “unauthorized donation of precious, life-sustaining organs” with “telemarketing fraud” and you’ve got the basis for a scam that took in nearly $3 million from people who had already been the victims of fraud. [More]
Verizon Wireless Asks FCC For Permission To Start Offering WiFi Calling
By 10.26.15
Not one to be left behind while the other major carriers are hanging out on the technology bandwagon, Verizon Wireless has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to enable WiFi calling on its network. [More]
After RushCard Fiasco, Consumer Advocates Urge More Oversight Of Prepaid Cards
By 10.26.15
For the better part of two weeks, thousands of unbanked consumers who rely on prepaid RushCards have been unable to access their funds because of a technical glitch. While the company run by Russell Simmons continues to fix the issue, consumer advocates are pointing at the incident as evidence that federal regulators need to do more to protect prepaid cardholders. [More]
Whole Foods Recalls Prepackaged Chicken Salad, Pasta Salad Over Possible Listeria Contamination
By 10.26.15
If your lunch today consists of that premade sandwich, wrap or pasta salad you grabbed from Whole Foods Market last week, you might want to come up with a backup plan: the health food chain recalled several of its deli products over a possible listeria contamination. [More]
Watch A Takata Airbag Explode In Slow Motion
By 10.23.15
Last year, owners of vehicles equipped with shrapnel-shooting Takata airbags shared their point of view of the massive safety device recall, likening the situation to driving around with an explosive device in their steering wheel and dashboard. Their description was no doubt frightening, but seeing one of the airbags rupture in real time is even more so. [More]
Conflicts In Patient Privacy Laws Often Leave Student Health Records Vulnerable
By 10.23.15
When a college student seeks medical treatment at a campus healthcare facility, they probably expect they will be afforded the same discretion as all consumer are under HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). But thanks to a separate, often conflicting federal law, that isn’t always the case. [More]
Head Of Egg Board Steps Down After Anti-Vegan Mayo Crusade Revealed
By 10.23.15
To advertise entire categories of food, like “potatoes” or “beef” or “eggs,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture collects money from all producers of that commodity, which the Hass Avocado Board or Mushroom Council then uses to advertise those foods to the public. Now the CEO of the American Egg Board will step down a few months early after e-mails revealed that the American Egg Board was working to keep a new eggless mayonnaise product out of stores. [More]
Mazda Recalls 1.2M Vehicles Because Grease In The Ignition Can Cause A Fire
By 10.23.15
If you have an older Mazda that still runs like a champ, listen up: the car company is recalling nearly 1.2 million vehicles made in the 1990s because of defective ignition switches. [More]
Lumber Liquidators Pleads Guilty To Selling Hardwood From Endangered Big Cat Habitats
By 10.22.15
Lumber Liquidators has officially pleaded guilty to violations of the Lacey Act, a law that bans illegally-harvested animal and plant products, including trees, from sale in the United States. It turns out that the offending hardwoods were illegally harvested because they were in forests in eastern Russia that are home to two species of endangered wild cats: the Amur leopard and the Siberian tiger. [More]
FCC Puts Caps On The Sky-High Rates Prisoners Pay To Call Home
By 10.22.15
Long-distance and collect calling aren’t something most of us have to think about all that often, anymore. But for the families of the 2.2 million Americans living behind bars, the monopoly contracts that exist on phone companies behind bars, and the exorbitant, sky-high rates that spring from them, are a huge problem — one that the FCC has just taken action to mitigate. [More]
Nearly One-In-10 Takata Airbag Ruptures Results In Death
By 10.22.15
Nearly one-in-10 driver’s side Takata airbag ruptures results in a death, federal regulators revealed during a meeting to discuss the massive recall of shrapnel-shooting devices. [More]
VW Investigating If Second Diesel Engine Line Contains “Defeat Devices”
By 10.22.15
Volkswagen has admitted to rigging the emissions control systems on 11 million diesel cars over the last seven years. But what about the company’s older diesel model vehicles? That’s apparently something the carmaker intends to find out by launching yet another investigation. [More]
