Making Algorithms Accountable
by Julia Angwin, ProPublica
Companies use them to sort through stacks of résumés from job seekers. Credit agencies use them to determine our credit scores. And the criminal justice system is increasingly using algorithms to predict a defendant’s future criminality. Read More ›
Yelp Is Now Marking Businesses That Sue Reviewers
by Rosalie Chan, Time
The alert will appear on a company’s Yelp page and reads: “This business may be trying to abuse the legal system in an effort to stifle free speech, including issuing questionable legal threats against reviewers. As a reminder, reviewers who share their experiences have a First Amendment right to express their opinions on Yelp.” Read More ›
New Rules Would Require Debt Collectors to Prove You Actually Owe Money
by Chris Morran, The Consumerist
Consumer advocates have long pushed for reform in the debt collection market, and today’s announcement is met with applause, but also with the acknowledgement that this is just a beginning for an industry that has been rife with anti-consumer practices for decades. Read More ›
New Law Will Require Temporary License Plates in California
by Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Consumer and civil rights advocates worry the measure will significantly increase the number of people who receive fines for paperwork violations, because it would be easier for police to spot expired temporary plates. Read More ›
Advocates Say Verizon-Yahoo Deal Shows Need For Privacy Rules
by David McCabe, The Hill
The acquisition — a sign of Verizon’s growing interest in the advertising business — comes as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moves toward a final vote on the hotly contested proposed rules, which would require internet providers to get permission before using their customers data for most advertising purposes. Read More ›
PG&E Slammed At Trial As Feds Rest Their Case
by Libby Rainey, San Francisco Chronicle
The prosecution’s final witness testified under cross-examination Thursday that PG&E breached the investigation of the September 2010 pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes by “pre-interviewing” witnesses in at least two instances. Read More ›
The Secret Documents That Detail How Patients’ Privacy Is Breached
by Charles Ornstein, ProPublica
The top five categories of complaints in 2014, according to the Office for Civil Rights website, were impermissible uses and disclosures, safeguards, administrative safeguards, access and technical safeguards. Read More ›
California Attorney General Joins Federal Suit To Block Anthem-Cigna Merger
by Lisa Aliferis, KQED
In California, Anthem Blue Cross is a huge player with about 20 percent of private insurance market. Cigna has a smaller presence here, but the two companies “compete head-to-head for customers, especially large employers,” the attorney general’s office said. Read More ›
Campaign Cash: A Journey Through The Cal-Access Labyrinth
by Cosmo Garvin, Capitol Weekly
“The whole system predates Myspace, it predates USB flash drives,” said Daniel G. Newman, president of the Berkeley-based non-profit MapLight. Read More ›
Fitbit Must Face Lawsuit Over Sleep-Tracking Claims
by Chris Morran, Consumerist
Fitbit also contended that the marketing claims are just “puffery,” meaning general statements of superiority that can’t be taken as false advertising. Yet the judge found this argument unconvincing. Read More ›
‘Pink Tax Repeal’ Bill To End Gender-Based Pricing: U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier Calls For Practice To End, Announces Legislation
by Sara Gaiser Bay, San Mateo Daily Journal
Speier, a former state senator, previously introduced California legislation that passed in 1996 that required pricing for services like dry cleaning and haircuts to be based on the amount of time it took to do the job, not gender. Read More ›
Health Gadgets And Apps Outpace Privacy Protections, Report Finds
by Charles Ornstein, ProPublica
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the landmark 1996 patient-privacy law, only covers patient information kept by health providers, insurers and data clearinghouses, as well as their business partners. Falling outside the law’s purview: wearables like Fitbit that measure steps and sleep, at-home paternity tests, social media sites, and online repositories where individuals can store their health records. Read More ›
Former Corinthian College Students Sue To Have Private Loans Discharged
by Ashlee Kieler, Consumerist
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, against Turnstile Capital Management, LLC, Balboa Student Loan Trust, and University Accounting Service, LLC seeks to provide California students defrauded by the for-profit college chain with full debt relief. Read More ›