How can you protect your privacy online? A New York Times article today suggests that you can't. People concerned about privacy often try to be “careful” online. They stay off social media, or if they’re on it, they post cautiously. They don’t share information about their religious beliefs, personal life, health status or political views. […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
The New York Times has a lengthy article on Mick Mulvaney's tenure as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This account of Mulvaney’s tenure is based on interviews with more than 60 current or former bureau employees, current and former Mulvaney aides, consumer advocates and financial-industry executives and lobbyists, as well as hundreds […]
Avant, LLC, an online lending company, has agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that it engaged in deceptive and unfair loan servicing practices, including imposing unauthorized charges on consumers’ accounts and unlawfully requiring consumers to consent to automatic payments from their bank accounts. According to the FTC’s complaint, Avant offers unsecured installment loans […]
Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) have introduced a bill to prohibit large online platforms from using deceptive user interfaces, known as “dark patterns,” to trick consumers into handing over their personal data. Dark patterns refers to online interfaces in websites and apps designed to intentionally manipulate users into taking actions they would […]
Twelve corporate and four individual defendants have settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they deceptively marketed “cognitive improvement” supplements using sham news websites containing false and unsubstantiated efficacy claims, references to non-existent clinical studies, and fraudulent consumer and celebrity endorsements. The FTC also alleged that the defendants used affiliate marketers to make deceptive claims about […]
The Washington Post reports today that the CPSC was pursuing a recall of the BOB stroller, which apparently has a defect that has caused hundreds of crashes. Then the Trump appointees to the Commission halted the effort. Staff members at the Consumer Product Safety Commission collected 200 consumer-submitted reports from 2012 to 2018 of spontaneous […]
Two weeks ago, we blogged, here, about FairWarning's investigation, here, into industry influence at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Now, the House Energy and Commerce committee has called on the acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Ann Marie Buerkle, to disclose her contacts with business groups, and has noted concern that the FairWarning […]
The Hill reports that the Federal Trade Commission is ordering the largest broadband providers to turn over information on their handling of consumer data as the agency launches an extensive review of privacy practices. "Comcast, Verizon and AT&T were among the companies that received orders from the FTC following a 5-0 vote by the agency's […]
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported on their 2018 activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The report highlights both agencies’ law enforcement, education and public outreach, and policy initiatives. The report is here.
The online journal FairWarning this week reported on how lobbyists from the law firm Bracewell LLP have "specialized in helping product makers thwart rulemaking by the Consumer Product Safety Commission." One after another, industries have turned to Bracewell to fight unwanted federal standards, and they have not been disappointed. Along with the [recreational off-highway vehicle] […]