Tag Archives: CFC
Consumer Advocates Back FCC Proposal For Broadband Privacy Rules
by Rick Weber, Inside Cybersecurity
Consumer advocates are backing the general intention of a Federal Communications Commission proposal that would impose privacy requirements on Internet service providers. Read More ›
Lawmakers Sweat Details Of Consumer Health Privacy
by Cheryl Miller, The Recorder (San Francisco)
“We are in total agreement with the intent of the bill and believe that it’s very, very important that this information be given strong privacy protections,” Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, told the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee. But “we’ve had a lot of experience over the years with various privacy laws and how courts interpret those laws and … we want to be very precise about how a bill is written to make sure that it’s being interpreted by the industry and the courts as it was intended,” Holober said. Read More ›
Bill Aims To End ‘Pink Tax’ On Products
by Alia Ismay, San Diego Union-Tribune
Hueso’s Senate Bill 899 is sponsored by the Consumer Federation of California. It states that “no business establishment of any kind whatsoever may discriminate, with respect to the price charged for goods of a substantially similar or like kind, against a person because of the person’s gender.” Products are defined as “substantially similar” when they are the same brand, have the same functional components and share 90 percent of the same materials or ingredients. … The bill does not prohibit price differences based on labor, material or other “gender-neutral” factors. Read More ›
State Senate Looks At Banning Gender-Based Bias In Retail Pricing
by Bob Egelko and Melody Gutierrez, San Francisco Chronicle
Lisa Cuesta, a constituent of [SB 899 author Ben] Hueso’s in Chula Vista and chief operations officer of Casa Familiar, a social services nonprofit … [is] the mother of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy and says she’s unhappily gotten accustomed to paying $1 to $3 more for toy building blocks or plastic cars and trucks that are pink, purple or yellow — pastels marketed as girls’ colors, she said. “I don’t have the luxury or the time to go into the boys’ section and into the girls’ section” to look for the best deal, Cuesta said in an interview. Read More ›
Gender-Based Price Differences Could Be Banned
by Allen Young, Sacramento Business Journal
Senate Bill 899 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines this week and now heads to the Senate floor. … Female consumers pay 7 percent more on average for products that are essentially the same as the male version, according to a study released in December by a public consumer watchdog agency in New York City. The study looked at 800 consumer products with “clear male and female versions” and found that products targeted toward girls and women were more expensive 42 percent of the time. Read More ›
Gender Pay Gap Includes Product Pricing
by Gabrielle Karol, ABC10, Sacramento
The Consumer Federation of California sponsored [SB 899], which was authored by State Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego). The bill’s motivation is a December report from New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs. In the report, nearly 800 products are compared at two dozen different retailers. Forty-two percent of the time, women’s products are priced higher than men’s products. The so-called “pink tax” means shoppers are paying an average seven percent more for items targeted to women. Read More ›
CFC Applauds FCC Move To Protect Broadband Privacy
“Today’s vote is a significant advance for privacy protection. Consumers should decide whether their online activities and other personal data are shared with third-party strangers,” CFC Executive Director Richard Holober said. “It is essential that any final FCC rule prohibits broadband carriers from charging extra for privacy. Privacy is a right that should not be available only to the wealthy.” Read More ›
Wells Fargo To Pay $8.5 Million In Privacy Case, None To Victims
by Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle
[Penal Code sections 632 and 632.7] make it illegal to record phone conversations without the consent of all parties. Violators can be fined up to $2,500 per call or imprisoned in a county jail. … “This is very different from the kinds of settlements I have seen brought by private attorneys representing consumers” in class-action cases alleging violations of California’s eavesdropping law, said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. “In those kinds of lawsuits, individual class members typically can receive hundreds or thousands of dollars if they submit a claim. This involves zero recovery by individual class members.” Read More ›
CFC Sponsors SB 899 (Hueso) To End Gender Bias In Retail Prices
6/30 update: Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) dropped SB 899 today after it became apparent that a majority of the Assembly Judiciary Committee would not support the bill unless he accepted amendments proposed by the committee’s leadership that would have eviscerated the bill. Women shouldn’t be charged … Read More ›
CFC, Other Groups Urge FCC To Protect Personal Privacy From Internet, Telecom and Cable Companies
The letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler rejects the looser regulatory framework advocated by broadband Internet service providers (ISPs). The ISPs’ approach relies in large part on existing Federal Trade Commission rules that have done little to restrain ISPs’ aggressive mining of their subscribers’ data for marketing purposes, the consumer and privacy groups warn. ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and Cox can exploit the personal data they amass on Web surfers, cable and streaming television viewers and smartphone users – not just marketing to their own customers but also selling the information to third parties. Read More ›
ID Theft Puts Privacy And Financial Security Of Medical Patients, Taxpayers – Even Children – At Risk
There were 12.7 million adult victims of identity theft nationwide in 2014, including over 1.5 million in California, according to the California Attorney General’s Office. “My educated guess is that nearly every adult in the U.S. has been affected by at least one breach involving their Social Security number and/or sensitive personal financial information. Most people have likely been affected by more than one breach,” said Beth Givens, Executive Director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Givens predicts health care institution breaches will continue to be big stories in 2016. Other likely targets are educational institutions and government agencies. Read More ›
SB 215 Sustains Drive For CPUC Reforms Originally Sought In SB 660
1/27/2015 Update: The Senate approved SB 215 (Leno) in a 37-0 vote yesterday (with no votes recorded for Senators Bates, Liu and Wolk). The bill awaits committee action in the Assembly. SB 215 incorporates CPUC reforms CFC had sought in SB 660 (Leno), which had passed unanimously in both the Assembly … Read More ›
2015 In Review: Recap Of State Consumer Legislation
In the 2015 legislative session, Consumer Federation of California (CFC) advocated for a range of consumer and privacy rights, including restrictions on unfair lending practices, protections against elder abuse, workers’ rights and the minimum wage, and reform of the California Public Utilities Commission. CFC also helped to … Read More ›