A California woman recently found out she couldn’t open a Comcast account in her name because she owed the cable company a lot of money… even though she’d never been a customer before. She eventually found out that Comcast had allowed people to use her social security number to open up more than a dozen accounts, and then sent a collection agency after her to make her pay for the company’s failure to catch these scammers. [More]
social insecurity
Comcast Fails To Stop Scammers From Opening 15 Accounts Using Same Stolen Social Security Number
By 1.2.14
Social Security Disability Payments Could Dry Up In 2017
By 8.22.11
The Social Security disability fund may not be able to make payments come 2017, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). [More]
5 Things To Do When A Company Leaks Your Data
By 5.6.11
What should yo do if you’re a victim of Sony’s recent security breaches — or of similar data leaks at other security-challenged-companies? Our clever cousins at Consumer Reports have come up with a set of tips to help you weather the post-hack storm. Top of the list: Accept free credit-monitoring services that the company offers to its customers, but don’t count on them to catch everything. [More]
Social Security Phases Out Paper Checks
By 5.3.11
Planning to save $1 billion over the next decade by eliminating the costs of printing, handling and sending paper checks, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will require all new Social Security applicants to set up direct deposit. Those who have always received Social Security checks will be able to continue doing so until March 2013, when the organization will eliminate paper checks entirely. [More]
Facebook's Privacy Settings Are Actually "Evil Interfaces"
By 5.4.10
Facebook is in a quandary: they want to sell their users’ data for cash, but they don’t want to look like doucheshnozzles. What’s a social network to do? Design a byzantine apparatus for opting out of the privacy-invasions that confuses and discourages the user from using it effectively, while still appearing to be user-friendly and functional. That way they can have their cake and eat it and sell it too. In other words, it’s an “evil interface,” and Facebook’s privacy settings are full of them, argues the Electronic Frontier Foundation: [More]
