Law prof Eric Goldman has written An Introduction to the California Consumer Privacy Act. Here's the abstract: After a mere week of deliberations, the California legislature passed the Consumer Privacy Act (CPA), a sweeping, lengthy (10,000 words!), insanely complicated, and poorly drafted privacy regulation that will govern the world’s fifth largest economy. This short primer, excerpted […]
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a distressing story by personal finance reporter Tara Siegel Bernard about the increasing rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy protection. The story relies on a study that was recently released by professors Deborah Thorne of the University of Idaho, Pamela Foohey of the Indiana University Maurer School […]
Jon Sheldon at the National Consumer Law Center discusses "Shortening the Limitations Period on Credit Card Collection Lawsuits": With the growth of the debt buying industry, the statute of limitations has become a particularly important defense in credit card collection lawsuits. Not only do debt buyers purchase credit card debt six months or more after […]
The Regulatory Review has a short piece on Betsy Devos's effort to roll back protections for student loan borrowers put in place under the Obama Administration, focusing on the borrower-defense rule. The post is here.
Mobile peer-to-peer payment services used on smartphones and tablets make it easy to transfer money between friends. Consumer Reports tested five mobile P2P services — Venmo, Square's Cash App, Facebook P2P Payments in Messenger, and Zelle — to see how they stacked up for protecting data-privacy and security. The article is here.
In a piece for the Washington Post wntitled In expensive cities, rents fall for the rich — but rise for the poor, Jeff Stein writes: U.S. cities struggling with soaring housing costs have found some success in lowering rents this year, but that relief has not reached the renters most at risk of losing their housing. […]
Tamara R. Piety of Tulsa has written Advertising as Experimentation on Human Subjects. Here's the abstract: Within the industry, it is an article of faith that consumers distrust advertising. One reason for that distrust may be that they fear being manipulated. Yet the debate about advertising and manipulation always seems to revolve around how much manipulation […]
by Jeff Sovern That's the question David Dayen raises in an important essay in InTheseTimes, Trump Appointees Are Pushing a Deregulation Plan That Could Dramatically Erode Consumer Protections. As Dayen points out, in the run-up to the Great Recession, the OCC proclaimed that state anti-predatory lending laws were preempted as to national banks. We know […]
Rory Van Loo of BU has written Technology Regulation by Default: Platforms, Privacy, and the CFPB. Here's the abstract: In the absence of a technology-focused regulator, diverse administrative agencies have been forced to develop regulatory models for governing their sphere of the data economy. These largely uncoordinated efforts offer a laboratory of regulatory experimentation on governance architecture. […]
by Jeff Sovern Here is a report by Kate Berry in the American Banker (behind paywall). A vote for her would be a vote for someone without experience in or any demonstrated knowledge of consumer law and for someone who professes to value transparency but who was not transparent during her confirmation hearings. UPDATE: Evan Weinberger […]