North Carolina’s tax collectors want to find out which of the state’s residents have bought untaxed goods from Amazon over the past seven years, so they visited Amazon’s HQ in Seattle and demanded the retailer turn over its records. When Amazon said no, the state threatened to sue. What it got instead was a preemptive lawsuit from Amazon that “says the demand violates the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon’s customers.” [More]
privacy
BBB Wants To Tear Your Personal Papers Apart Tomorrow
By 4.16.10
The Better Business Bureau says tomorrow is Secure Your ID Day, which means 55 BBB locations around the country will provide free shredding services. You can frustrate identity thieves who planned on digging through your trash to find out your secret info by putting your files through the shredder. [More]
Why Is Angie's List Spying On Me?
By 4.15.10
James tells Consumerist that he tried Angie’s List, and wasn’t thrilled with the experience. He was surprised and displeased, however, when a representative from the service reached out, called him, and asked him some questions about the professionals he had searched for. Would you have reacted the same way? [More]
Would Electronic Medical Records Make You Hide Things From Your Doctor?
By 4.13.10
The California HealthCare Foundation recently released the results of a survey on electronic medical records and consumer behavior. The survey found that 15% of people would hide things from their doctor if the medical record system shared anonymous data with other organizations. Another 33% weren’t sure, but would consider hiding something. [More]
MasterCard Opens Online Store, Uses Predictive Software To Guess What You'll Buy
By 4.12.10
MasterCard has decided to expand into online retailing, so it’s opened a store that’s sort of Amazon lite. Well, Amazon several design iterations ago. Actually the site looks like one of those themed mini-stores eBay keeps promoting these days, but the merchandise is all new and tailored to your shopping patterns. And by “tailored,” I mean that the card issuer is using special customer behavior software to predict the things you’re most likely to buy, which it then shows to you. [More]
Good Samaritan Emails Us From The Account You Left Logged In On A Best Buy Display iPad
By 4.9.10
Hey world: Don’t leave yourself logged in to a display product at Best Buy! One Consumerist reader found someone logged in to a display iPad at Best Buy and emailed them and us from the logged in account. [More]
Radio Shack Wouldn't Let Me Buy Stuff Without Email, Address, Phone #
By 3.22.10
Reader Molly needed a cellphone charger. She ran in to Radio Shack to grab one and paid with cash — but the cashier wouldn’t complete the transaction without her home address, phone number and email address. She’s wondering if this is normal. [More]
Upgrades: Blippy Lets You Screen Out Single Purchases
By 3.12.10
Blippy launched a few months ago as a service that lets you plug in your credit card and broadcasts online every single purchase you make. For people looking for public accountability about what they spend money on, or just another social networking vanity trip, it’s pretty neat. But maybe there’s certain things that come in brown paper bags that you don’t want your mother stumbling across. Rolling out along with a Facebook-esque site redesign, Blippy has added a new privacy feature that lets you manually screen out individual purchases before the hit the net, and your mom hits the roof. To use it, [More]
Big Media To Crack Down On Copyright Pirates
By 3.5.10
On his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, Alan Mutter says a company called Attributor has rounded up several big media companies and is set to go after sites that hock their content for free. [More]
Lowe's Is Totally Hitting On Me And Other Customers
By 3.2.10
Steve was taken aback when Lowe’s asked him and other customers for their phone numbers as they were checking out. [More]
School Watched Student On Webcam On Suspicion Of Drug Dealing
By 2.28.10
Man, I can’t wait to see the “Law & Order” episode they’re going to make out of this. The family who filed a class action lawsuit against their son’s school district for allegedly spying on their son at home through the webcam of his school-issued Macbook has demanded to see the actual photos and other digital records pertaining to the case. The family claims that the school was watching the him on suspicion that he was using and selling drugs. They insist that the incriminating photos caught him … eating candy. [More]
Citibank Is Sorry For Printing Your SSN On The Outside Of Envelopes
By 2.26.10
This January, Citibank sent out 600,000 mailers with their customers’ social security numbers printed on the outside of the envelope. Whoopsie! [More]
This Pizza Joint Sent My Credit Card Info Around Via Email
By 2.26.10
Andrew blogs about how he ordered pizza online and it came with an unwanted topping — fraud risk. [More]
Do A Total Background Check On Yourself
By 2.25.10
Now you can know what Big Brother knows about you and get access to the same dirt everyone from your boss, landlord, insurance agent, to your favorite casino has on you. Here is a comprehenisve list of websites and phone numbers for most of the “specialty” consumer reports, like your employment, rental, and check writing history. Be sure to check them out and correct any errors, before a crisis hits. [More]
Google Says It Will Ask Early Buzz Users To Doublecheck Their Privacy Settings
By 2.23.10
Wired reports that Google will offer a do-over to early users of Buzz, the social network service that has earned the company criticism and a class-action lawsuit. [More]
"Chuck Norris" Virus Commands Your Router For His Botnet
By 2.23.10
Is there a “Chuck Norris” virus hiding inside your router and subjugating it for his secret botnet army? [Prague Daily Monitor] [More]
1983 PleaseRobMe, 1977 Foursquare
By 2.23.10
Technology is scary! People will use all these status and twitter and facebook updates to find out when you’re not home and come and steal all your DVDs! At least that was the ballyhoo last week when the site PleaseRobMe launched. Turns out, they were just reinventing the fear wheel. Andy Baio found an article from 1983 that warned consumers that burglars would know by your answering machine picking up that you weren’t home, and one from 1977 that advised against posting funeral notices in the paper, lest robbers make off with the silver while you’re burying grandpa. The more things change, the less they do. [More]
