Court Orders Wells Fargo to Repay Debit Card Holders over Fees
by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge’s decision that the bank had misled customers about how the fees would be calculated. A lawyer for the plaintiffs has estimated that more than 1 million debit card customers, who incurred the fees between November 2004 and June 2008, would be eligible for the refunds. The case involved the bank’s former procedures for processing multiple transactions that, when combined, exceed a customer’s credit limit. In 2001, Wells Fargo started entering the largest transaction first, a change that multiplied overdraft fees of up to $35 each. Read More ›
The Sharing Economy: 21st Century Technology, 19th Century Worker Protections
by Amanda Armstrong, In These Times
Uber’s intensive lobbying over the summer reduced AB 2293 to a shadow of its original self. As noted by the Consumer Federation of California, in its final form the bill establishes insurance minimums far below those required of taxi, limo, and other companies that provide similar services. But the bill was flawed even at its inception, as it never sought to protect workers. AB 2293 makes drivers legally responsible for carrying liability insurance for passengers, pedestrians, and other motorists, while withholding from drivers and their family members guarantees of compensation or support in the event that they are injured or killed on the job. Read More ›
Data Breaches in California Jump and Are Expected to Keep Climbing
by Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times
Security experts predict that the number of breaches, especially on a big scale, will keep growing. “The data breaches are going to continue and will probably get worse with the short term,” said Jim Penrose, former chief of the Operational Discovery Center at the National Security Agency. … Another vulnerable sector is the healthcare industry. Stealing medical records can be more “insidious” than stealing other data because they can be used for identity theft and fraud over a longer stretch of time. Read More ›
FCC: Phone Companies Posted Private Info Online
by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press
An online search into TerraCom resulted in a Lifeline application that had been filled out and was posted … Eventually, Wolf and his editors discovered more than 170,000 records that included Social Security numbers, home addresses and financial accounts. … Proponents of the Lifeline program say the federal subsidies are critical to ensuring that households that fall well-below the poverty line have access to at least one phone in case of emergency and to aid job prospects. The $10 million fine was the FCC’s first data security case and its largest privacy action. Read More ›
Overwhelming Majority of Doctors Concerned About Use of Antibiotics in Healthy Livestock
by Consumers Union, press release
Consumer Reports’ poll found that 97% of doctors are concerned about the growing problem of drug-resistant infections — an understandable worry given that nearly a third of doctors polled have had a patient die or suffer significant complications within the last year from a multi-drug resistant infection. Those numbers are even higher for doctors who work in both outpatient and hospital settings. Some 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used not on humans but on animals. Read More ›
Lured by Verizon into Giving up Cellphone Privacy
by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
Similar tactics are employed by practically all other telecom, financial and Internet companies. But Verizon Wireless has been unusually clumsy in its efforts to coax customers into abandoning their privacy. … It’s using the prospect of money-saving deals as an enticement for people agreeing to let the company peer over their shoulder. [One analyst] said programs such as Verizon Smart Rewards represent “a location gold mine” that can be used by wireless carriers for “big data analytics and advertising.” The wireless industry could be looking at nearly $2 billion in extra revenue by 2019. Read More ›
It’s the Worst Year Ever for Auto Recalls. Why Are So Many Dangerous Cars Still on the Road?
by Drew Harwell, The Washington Post
Those defective cars can then spread widely to used car lots and the driveways of unsuspecting buyers. About 3.5 million recalled cars and trucks were listed for sale last year, according to Carfax. Keeping track of what cars are problematic can also prove a hassle: Stericycle, a recall consultant and service firm for automakers, said there have been 544 separate recalls announced this year, or nearly two recalls a day. Read More ›
It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer
by Hiroko Tabuchi and Christopher Jensen, The New York Times
Ms. Tran became at least the third death associated with the mushrooming recalls of vehicles containing defective air bags made by Takata, a Japanese auto supplier. … Safety experts say that more rupture cases could be going unnoticed, or underreported, leaving affected cars on the road. For example, a California lawyer says that a fourth driver, Hai Ming Xu, 47, was killed in September 2013 by an air bag that ruptured in his 2002 Acura. The authorities have not determined a reason for the injuries, though his coroner’s report cited tears in his air bag and facial trauma from a foreign object.
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CPUC Lawyers Say Bosses Kept Quiet on Judge-shopping Order
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
“To our knowledge, the commission has not taken appropriate steps in the past months to preserve evidence, such as notifying all relevant commission officers and staff of their obligations,” the lawyers wrote to the five commissioners. They said some agency offices were planning “clean-out days” in preparation for a return to the commission’s renovated headquarters on Van Ness Avenue, “and that records may be destroyed in the process.” Read More ›
Private Student Loan Companies Provide Few Options for Borrower, Driving Them to Default
by Ashlee Kieler, Consumerist
Officials with the CFPB say these shortcomings reflect an industry that has done little to make good on commitments by lenders to expand alternative repayment options. “The response by the private student loan industry to distressed borrowers is failing to help them avoid default,” Rohit Chopra, CFPB student loan ombudsman says in the report. “Too many borrowers are barely treading water, losing hope that these companies will throw them a lifeline.” Read More ›
AB 2667 Update: State Settles with RTO Computer Firm over Consumer Protection Violations
“Aaron’s violated California state privacy laws by permitting its franchised stores to install spyware on laptop computers rented to its customers. A feature in the spyware program … allowed the Aaron’s franchisees to remotely monitor keystrokes, capture screenshots, track the physical location of consumers and even activate the rented computer’s webcam,” the announcement alleges. Gov. Jerry Brown last month signed CFC-sponsored Assembly Bill 2667 (Bloom) to expressly outlaw such computerized snooping in the rent-to-own computer industry in California in the future. Read More ›
Lawyers Ask Supreme Court to Review Medical Data Breach Case
by Marisa Kendall, The Recorder
A thief broke into Sutter Medical Foundation’s Sacramento office in 2011, smashing a window and stealing a computer that housed records for 4 million patients. The data was password protected but not encrypted. The Third District dismissed the case on appeal, ruling the medical privacy statute was not triggered because plaintiffs lacked evidence the stolen information was actually viewed by an unauthorized person. Plaintiffs lawyers argue the affected patients suffered an invasion of privacy that constitutes real harm, even if it does not amount to quantifiable damages. Read More ›
Do You Ever Shop Anywhere? Congratulations: Your Data Will Be Hacked
by Kate Cox, Consumerist
The annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report finds that the vast majority of attacks, hacks, and breaches are motivated by plain old financial gain. Security expert Brian Krebs — the man who discovered and broke the news about both the Target and Home Depot hacks, among others — has delved into the markets where stolen card numbers are resold. When the cards stolen from Target were new, he found, they went for between $26.60 and $44.80 each. By February, prices were as low as $8 because the card numbers were less likely still to be valid. Read More ›