The Federal Trade Commission has announced that Wyndham Hotels and Resorts has agreed to settle FTC charges that the company’s security practices unfairly exposed the payment card information of hundreds of thousands of consumers to hackers in three separate data breaches. Under the terms of the settlement, the company will establish a comprehensive information security […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
NPR reports: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has imposed a $70 million civil fine on the parent company of Chrysler for failing to report safety data. A statement from the agency said Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA, has acknowledged that it failed to turn in "early warning report" data about accidents, warranty claims and […]
This week, the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a federal complaint against a Massachusetts debt collection firm called EOS CCA for reporting and collecting on old cellphone debt that consumers disputed and EOS did not verify. The company also provided inaccurate information to credit reporting companies about the debt and failed to correct reported […]
In a class action against Mattel, two mothers allege that the talking Hello Barbie doll invades children's privacy by recording their conversations and storing them in the cloud. Courthouse News reports: Mattel says on its website that Hello Barbie complies with the privacy requirements under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). But Archer-Hayes […]
A report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released yesterday details how the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) has helped reduce the cost of “gotcha” credit card fees by more than $16 billion. "Since the reform law, total costs to consumers have fallen with the elimination of certain back-end pricing practices […]
Courthouse News reports: After passing some of the strictest legislation in the nation regulating soda and other sugary drinks, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to repeal a ban on soft drink ads on city property. Days after the board passed the trio of laws in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck […]
Yesterday, the National Restaurant Association announced plans to file a lawsuit against New York City's health department over its requirement that chain restaurants post warning labels on foods that contain more than the recommended daily limit for sodium. The rule takes effect today. It requires chain restaurants with 15 or more locations in New York […]
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation press release: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint today with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Google for collecting and data mining school children’s personal information, including their Internet searches—a practice EFF uncovered while researching its “Spying on Students” campaign, which launched today. The campaign was created to […]
The Wall Street Journal reports on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consideration of a rule requiring lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, in an effort to prevent discrimination against small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. "To do that, the agency would require lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, […]
Politico reports: The FCC has announced a series of eye-popping fines against companies over the past two years: Roughly $100 million against nearly a dozen firms for defrauding a phone subsidy program, $35 million against a Chinese company for selling illegal wireless jamming equipment, and $100 million against AT&T this June for throttling customers on […]