At this point, it should come as no surprise to read about mobile app tracking users and selling the data. But an article in today's New York Times still makes for interesting and disturbing reading. The article explains that – At least 75 companies receive anonymous, precise location data from apps whose users enable location […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
The top consumer protection official at the Federal Trade Commission is barred from handling cases involving more than 100 different companies due to conflicts of interest from his prior work as a private sector attorney, according to documents obtained by Public Citizen. Andrew Smith, who last May became the director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection […]
Two Senators — Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) — are introducing a bill today that would ban the use confessions of judgment by predatory lenders. The issue is a provision in some loan agreements for small businesses, in which the lender requires the small-business borrower to agree not to defend themselves in court […]
The Washington Post reports today on the Consumer Financial protection Bureau, one year after Director Richard Cordray, who was appointed by President Obama, stepped down and was replaced with OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. If you care about consumer financial protection, it's not a happy story. One year after Mulvaney’s arrival, he and his political aides […]
The Hill reports that changing the name of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could cost the businesses it regulates more than $300 million. Banks, lenders and other financial services firms subject to CFPB supervision could be required to spend millions of dollars if the agency goes through with a rebranding proposal from acting Director Mick […]
The Federal Communications Commission recently released a proposal "to reduce unwanted robocalls and support blocking of spam robotexts." A Washington Post editorial today argues that the FCC proposal on spam texts "empowers companies instead of consumers." The gist of the issue is this: The FCC announced in November that it plans formally to classify text […]
Amendments to Rules 5, 23, 62, and 65.1 went into effect yesterday. You can view them, as well as amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, here. Of particular interest for consumer law are the amendments to Rule 23, which provide grounds for the district court's approval of a proposed class-action settlement, disclosure of […]
The Ombudsman explains: "At the Ombudsman’s Office, we are an independent, impartial, and confidential resource that assists consumers, financial entities, consumer or trade groups, and others in informally resolving process issues with the Bureau. In short, we advocate for fair process in consumer financial protection. As in previous years, our annual report outlines our work […]
The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate the requirement of professional appraisals for many home sales — "a move that critics say could push the country back toward the see-no-evil days of mortgage lending that preceded the housing crash,"reports the Washington Post. Just before Thanksgiving, the administration’s top financial regulators — the Federal Deposit Insurance […]
A bill to give the federal government authority to collect civil penalties if a company misuses online consumer data or allows it to be stolen may be drafted early next year, the New York Times reports. "A subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee discussed elements of the bill on Tuesday, including the […]