Category Archives: Uncategorized
Exploding Air Bags: Takata Recall Now Totals 34 Million Vehicles
by Jerry Hirsch and Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
The auto industry is seeing increasingly large recalls as manufacturers share parts across their own models and use components from the same suppliers. NHTSA said there were 803 vehicle recalls last year involving 63.9 million vehicles. Last year’s tally included two of the 10 largest vehicle recalls in history and involved double the record number of cars set in 2004. … “It’s fair to say this is probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history,” [said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony] Foxx. Read More ›
AB 925 Dies: Secret Recording Of Business-Customer Cell Phone Calls Remains A Crime
Democrats on the Assembly Committee on Public Safety approved AB 925 on a 5-2 party line vote after strenuous opposition from CFC and other consumer, privacy, senior, student, labor and immigrant advocacy groups weakened the bill. Amendments were not yet in print but reportedly would require notification to customers that a call may be recorded 20 seconds into a cell phone conversation, so it remains a bad bill. Read More ›
Privacy Getting Taken For A Ride
by Samantha Gallegos, Capitol Weekly
Sponsored by the Consumer Federation of California, a non-profit consumer-rights advocacy group, [Assembly Member Ed] Chau’s bill would set up privacy standards related to “personally identifiable data” that [Transportation Network Companies] — like Uber or Lyft — would be required to follow. Those standards don’t exist now, Chau said. “I guess you could say, well, protecting some personal data is better than protecting none,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation. “Right now none is protected. And I don’t believe the flawed argument that Internet-based companies should have greater freedom than the other businesses who collect and share data.” Read More ›
AB 886’s Privacy Protections For Uber Passengers Held Up
Update 6/1/2015: The deadline for bills to advance from committees to the Floor passed last week, forestalling any realistic chance of reviving AB 886 this session. The bill was defeated in the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee April 20. Committee Chair Anthony Rendon and Assembly Members Roger Hernandez, Miguel Santiago and Das … Read More ›
AB 886 Would Protect The Privacy Of Uber Passengers
Assembly Member Chau has pulled AB 886 from consideration. He and Consumer Federation of California are considering promising alternative strategies to protect the privacy of passengers using Uber and other so-called transportation network companies. The sensitive personal data collected by Uber, for example, includes name, address, bank account information, travel logs, as well as personal address books and online search records that it pulls from passenger smartphones. It’s becoming alarmingly common for corporations to “mine” such data and share – or sell – it to other businesses. Read More ›
SB 763: CFC, Firefighters, Environmentalists Back Disclosure Of Chemical Hazards In Children’s Products
The Consumer Federation of California (CFC) has joined with professional firefighters and environmental advocates to co-sponsor legislation letting parents know whether products they buy for their children contain ineffective and hazardous flame retardants. … These chemicals have been linked to reproductive harm, cancer and other human health hazards. Fire safety experts consider them to be ineffective in preventing household fires. Read More ›
Credit-Reporting Companies Agree To Major Changes To Reduce Errors
by Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
The nation’s three largest credit-reporting companies have agreed to make it easier for consumers to correct mistakes, as well as to wait longer to list unpaid medical bills to allow more time for insurance payments, according to a government settlement announced Monday. The changes are designed to … Read More ›
Lumber Liquidators Linked To Health And Safety Violations
by Anderson Cooper, 60 Minutes
[Denny Larson and environmental attorney Richard Drury] bought more than 150 boxes of laminate flooring at stores around California and sent them to three certified labs for a series of tests. The results? While laminate flooring from Home Depot and Lowes had acceptable levels of formaldehyde, as did Lumber Liquidators American-made laminates, every single sample of Chinese-made laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators failed to meet California formaldehyde emissions standards. Many by a large margin. Read More ›
GEICO Rips Off Single, Lower-Income Drivers, CFC Alleges
Read CFC’s enforcement complaint here. If you’re an unmarried, uninsured good driver and have anything less than a bachelor’s degree or a professional job, GEICO quotes you coverages it claims are its “Lowest Limits” that are in fact as much as 1000% more than the minimum it … Read More ›
Corinthian Students To Get $480 Million Relief From ‘Predatory’ Loans
by Chris Kirkham, Los Angeles Times
As many as 170,000 students who took out private loans offered by Corinthian will see an immediate 40% reduction in their balances — about $1,880 on average — with additional reductions likely in the future. All students will see a 20% tuition reduction. And those enrolled in poor-performing programs can seek a full refund or transfer into another program. … Corinthian has been on a downward spiral since last summer, when the U.S. Department of Education restricted its access to federal student aid amid concerns that the company had falsified student job placement data. Read More ›
Is It Time For Regulators To Stab Zombie Debt Through The Brain?
by Chris Morran, Consumerist
What a lot of people don’t know — and what debt collectors rarely mention — is that most unpaid debt has an expiration date after which you can’t be sued for repayment. And even fewer consumers are aware that this dead debt can be sparked back to life by making a payment after it’s already passed on to the debt afterlife. A new report calls on federal regulators to make sure that debt doesn’t rise from the dead in zombie form. Read More ›
3 Ways To Track Down Your Old Debts
by Gerri Detweiler, Credit.com
When you’re on a mission to clean up your credit, there’s one task that may prove more difficult than you’d think: figuring out who you owe. That’s especially true if some of your debts are old, and have been sold by your creditors to collection agencies. These debts may be bought and sold multiple times, and some even remain in limbo for months or years. Tracking down the owner of a debt so you can pay it sometimes proves challenging. Here are three ways to find your debts so you can resolve them, along with three crucial things you need to understand when you do. Read More ›
SB 215 Sustains Drive For CPUC Reforms Originally Sought Via SB 660
1/27/15 update: The Senate passed SB 215 (Leno) 37-0 yesterday, sending the CPUC reform bill to the Assembly. The bill includes limits on “ex parte” (private) communications that CFC had sought in SB 660, which had passed both the Senate and Assembly last fall but was vetoed by Governor … Read More ›