The Federal Trade Commission yesterday issued a report on the “fundamental lack of transparency” in the data broker industry. The FTC’s press release provides a good summary: The report, “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability” is the result of a study of nine data brokers, representing a cross-section of the industry, undertaken by […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
According to the FTC, a Houston-based debt collection company called Goldman Schwartz, Inc., used insults, lies, and false threats of imprisonment to collect on payday loans. Under a settlement announced this week, the company’s owner will surrender his assets, approximately $550,000, to pay restitution to consumers who were charged unauthorized fees. The settlement also permanently […]
From DOT's press announcement: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that General Motors (GM) has agreed to pay a record $35 million civil penalty and to take part in unprecedented oversight requirements as a result of findings from NHTSA’s timeliness investigation regarding the Chevrolet Cobalt and the automaker’s […]
Yesterday, Vermon't governor signed into a law a bill that will require labels on genetically engineered or genetically modified (GMO) foods sold at retail stores Vermont. The law will also prohibit labeling products that contain GMOs as “natural.” The law will go into effect on July 1, 2016. Maine and Connecticut have also passed laws […]
From the FTC’s press release: Two data brokers have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by providing reports about consumers to users such as prospective employers and landlords without taking reasonable steps to make sure that they were accurate, or without making sure their users […]
Even aside from concerns about Facebook and privacy, the people who set up this business must truly be, well, jerks …. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission charged the operators of the website “Jerk.com” with harvesting personal information from Facebook to create profiles labeling people a “Jerk” or “not a Jerk,” then falsely claiming that […]
By Adina Rosenbaum, Public Citizen This morning, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Northwest v. Ginsberg, holding that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempts Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg’s claim that Northwest breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing when it terminated his frequent flyer program membership. Rabbi Ginsberg was a long-standing […]
“The Federal Trade Commission has moved to close down a multi-million dollar telemarketing fraud that targeted U.S. seniors across the nation, scamming tens of thousands of consumers,” according to an FTC press release. The defendants used a telemarketing boiler room in Canada … to cold-call seniors claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical […]
After the collapse of the housing market in 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies coordinated enforcement activites to target mortgage fraud schemes. This week, DOJ’s Office of Inspector General released an “Audit Of The Department Of Justice’s Efforts To Address Mortgage Fraud.” The Washington Post summarizes the report’s conclusions as follows: “When […]
Last week, Brian noted that DropBox has added a forced arbitration clause with a class-action ban to its terms of use, and observed that the "opt-out" provision was a "public relations gambit," not a serious effort to allow consumers to make an informed choice about whether to give up the right to go to court. […]