PG&E Customers Face Triple Whammy In Gas And Electric Bills
by George Avalos, East Bay Times
Before Monday’s hike, total monthly bills for residential customers averaged $145.36. Once all the approved and proposed increases are in effect, monthly power bills could jump to $158.21. Read More ›
Judge Shreds Uber; Says Company Can’t Prove Riders Are Giving Up Right To Sue
by Chris Morran, Consumerist
With regard to the Uber app, [U.S. District Court Judge Ned] Rakoff notes that there is no requirement for the new user to even check off a box that they read the terms of service; one could easily finalize their registration without reading, or even knowing about, these terms — let alone the restrictive arbitration clause. Read More ›
Glow Pregnancy App Exposed Women to Privacy Threats, Consumer Reports Finds
by Jerry Beilinson, Consumer Reports
It would be easy for stalkers, online bullies, or identity thieves to use the information they gathered to harm Glow’s users. “We were troubled by the nature and depth of the security problems we discovered,” says Maria Rerecich, Consumer Reports’ director of electronics testing. Read More ›
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 ›