Since most of us aren’t looking at websites via a Tor connection, we’re leaving digital footprints all over the place. The sites you visit may have a surprising amount of information on you, even if you’re not logged in, and even if you went to that site inadvertently. That’s why the Justice Department is trying to compel a web-hosting company to turn over everything it knows about anyone who ever clicked on a site that is critical of President Trump. It’s also why that company is fighting against this demand. [More]
justice department
Digital Rights Advocates Sue Justice Dept. To Learn More About FBI Paying Off Best Buy Informants
By 6.1.17
A child pornography case in California has grown into a strange thing over the years, as lawyers for the defendant argued — and later proved — that the FBI had been paying Best Buy employees after they found illegal content on customers’ devices. Now the EFF is suing the Justice Department to find out just how the feds found, recruited, and trained these informants, and just how widespread the practice is. [More]
Feds Launch Criminal Investigation, Want To Know If Uber’s “Greyball” Broke The Law
By 5.5.17
Uber’s expansion throughout the country and the world has been extremely rapid. Sometimes that’s meant going places where its service isn’t legal, in the hopes that it may eventually be — and using a secret tool, dubbed “Greyball”, to fool law enforcement and avoid getting caught. Until, of course, they did — and now the feds are wondering if Uber crossed a criminal line. [More]
Medical Marijuana Safe From DOJ Prosecution — For Now
By 5.4.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Although Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not a fan of marijuana, federal law has prohibited the Justice Department from using any of the funding it receives from Congress to prosecute medical marijuana in any state where it’s legal. Thanks to a new omnibus spending bill that just passed the House and Senate, it’ll stay that way — at least for the moment. [More]
VW Reaches $4.3 Billion Settlement Over Criminal Allegations For ‘Dieselgate’
By 1.10.17
Days after federal authorities arrested a Volkswagen executive in connection with the company’s ongoing “Dieselgate” scandal, the carmaker says it has reached a $4.3 billion settlement to resolve allegations of criminal wrongdoing. [More]
Senators Make Last-Ditch Attempt To Block Expanded Government Hacking Authority
By 11.30.16
There’s a change coming that could arguably make it a lot easier for feds to snoop through your digital stuff, even if you’ve done nothing but been the victim of some malware. If Congress doesn’t act to stop it, that change to Rule 41 becomes effective basically at midnight tonight. So a handful of Senators who want to block it are all but begging their colleagues to act now. [More]
Where Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions Comes Down On Consumer Issues
By 11.18.16
The election may feel like it happened just yesterday, but it’s now ten days behind us, and the building transition to the administration turnover in January is well underway. As part of that, today we learned President-Elect Donald Trump’s top choice for a key role that affects consumers and consumer rights nationwide: he will nominate Sen. Jefferson Sessions of Alabama as Attorney General. [More]
Volkswagen Engineer Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy Related To Dieselgate
By 9.9.16
Volkswagen’s year-long “dirty diesel” saga nabbed its first Volks-villain on Friday, when a veteran engineer for the carmaker pleaded guilty in the first criminal charge related to the VW’s use of so-called “defeat devices” in millions of vehicles in order to skirt federal emissions regulations. [More]
Justice Dept & 9 States Officially File To Block Anthem/Cigna, Aetna/Humana Mergers
By 7.21.16
The rumor mill yesterday has been borne out today, as the Department of Justice has officially filed a pair of lawsuits to block the mega-mergers of health insurers Anthem and Cigna. [More]
Report: Justice Dep’t Ready To Block Both Anthem/Cigna And Aetna/Humana Mergers
By 7.19.16
We closed out 2015 with the health insurance market poised to get a lot smaller, as Anthem proposed to by Cigna and Aetna said it would buy Humana. If both mergers go through, the number of large nationwide health insurance carriers would drop to just three… a big challenge in a U.S. that’s seen the market for health insurance expand since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. And if reports are true, the Justice Department may feel that’s just too much contraction. [More]
Southwest Airlines To Pay $2.8M To Settle FAA Lawsuit Over Improper Repairs
By 12.22.15
More than a year after the U.S. government sued Southwest Airlines over allegedly improper repairs to more than a dozen aircraft, the airline has agreed to settle the allegations to the tune of $2.8 million. [More]
Chicken Of The Sea, Bumble Bee Abandon Plan To Unite As One Giant Can Of Tuna After DOJ Objects
By 12.4.15
Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee will be leaving their underwater wedding separately despite going steady since 2014: the two tuna companies won’t be merging into one giant can of fish after the U.S. Justice Department put the kibosh on their planned union. [More]
Report: AT&T, DirecTV Merger Likely To Be Approved By Justice Dept. With No Conditions
By 7.1.15
It’s been over a year since AT&T and DirecTV publicly announced their intention to become one big happy mega-media company, and the two are clearly getting a little restless waiting for their approvals. However, it looks like they are about to get the green light they so badly want. [More]
Why Charter Thinks Their Plan To Buy TWC Is Different Enough To Succeed Where Comcast Failed
By 5.26.15
After months of rumors, this morning it became official: Charter plans to step in where Comcast failed, with a $55 billion plan to acquire Time Warner Cable. Regulators looked unfavorably on Comcast’s bid, finding it would have too many negative effects on consumers and on competition. But Charter clearly would not be trying its own takeover, with such a huge price tag, if they didn’t think they stood a good chance of success. So what makes the second offer so different from the first — and is it any more likely to succeed? [More]
There Are Two Things That Could Stop The Comcast/TWC Merger, And We Might Get Both
By 4.23.15
Update: Comcast is reportedly planning to back out from the merger deal as early as tomorrow in the face of the likely opposition from both the FCC and Justice Department. [More]
U.S. Sues Southwest For Not Paying $12M Fine Levied Over Improper Repairs
By 11.4.14
Here’s the thing about being fined by the U.S. government –– they won’t stop until you pay them. At least that appears to be the case with Southwest Airlines, which is being sued by the Justice Department for failure to pay a $12 million civil penalty levied by the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year. [More]
U.S. Files Suit To Stop $375M Merger of Companies Responsible For Ads Shown At Movie Theaters
By 11.3.14
Companies of all shapes and sizes hoping to complete million-dollar mergers often face some tough questions from U.S. regulators. The process is no different for the less-talked about industries, like movie theater ad companies (you know, the companies responsible for making you sit through commercials before a seeing a movie?). And so, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit to stop the $375 million merger of the industry’s two biggest players, National CineMedia Inc and Screenvision LLC. [More]
Justice Dept. Digging Deep “In The Weeds” Of Broadband Issues In Comcast/TWC Merger
By 10.20.14
Comcast and Time Warner Cable have been making the case for their merger nearly all year. The two companies talk up their TV programming sides a lot, but most watchers know that the merger — and the future — are really all about broadband, and that market is what Comcast is poised to control on a national scale. That potential dominance has worried not only businesses and consumer advocates, but also has apparently attracted the attention of the Justice Department as well. [More]
