Privacy

White House Big-Data Panel Wants Privacy Protections, Ignores NSA Debate

May 1, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p id="first_paragraph">Congress should take action to protect privacy in response to a growing big-data revolution, a White House panel has recommended, but its report does not address wide-ranging surveillance and data-collection programs at the U.S. National Security Agency.</p>

Google Changes Gmail-Scanning Policy for Apps for Education to Protect Students’ Personal Info

April 30, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google will stop looking for advertising ideas in the emails of students using a suite of the Internet company's free products tailored for schools.</p> <p>The changes announced Wednesday affect Google's "Apps for Education" service that has been offered to schools for the past seven years.</p>

Gov. Cuomo Criticized for Seeking Tech Advice From Google’s Eric Schmidt

April 30, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p itemprop="articleBody">Looking for advice on how to spend $2 billion for schoolhouse technology, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo turned to one of the men who built Google into a global colossus.</p> <p itemprop="articleBody">Now critics are asking whether it’s appropriate for <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/business/CEOs/eric-schmidt-google.htm">Eric Schmidt</a>, the tech company’s executive chairman, to be recommending projects that his company could well benefit from.</p>

Consumer Group Asks N.Y.’s Cuomo to Remove Google Official From Panel

April 29, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>A consumer-rights group wants New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to remove Google's executive chairman from his appointed position on a panel charged with advising the state on proposed spending on school technology. The group cites what it sees as the online-services company's weaknesses in protecting student privacy.</p>

Why You Pay More Rent Than Your Neighbor

April 26, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<div class="entry-content"> <p>A two-bedroom apartment in one of north Charlotte’s largest complexes could cost you about $900 a month. Next week, it might run you hundreds of dollars more.</p> <p>Apartment shoppers in Charlotte are finding that prices on units they’re interested in can vary dramatically from day to day, even hundreds of dollars in the span of a week. Driving the price swings are algorithms that track apartment supply and demand using dozens of variables.</p>

More Goods, Services Being Priced Like Plane Tickets

April 26, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<div class="entry-content"> <p>These days, prices on everything from baseball tickets to power tools can change by the hour.</p> <p>You can thank dynamic pricing, the system that has long guided pricing in airline tickets and hotel rooms and is now touching more areas of consumer life.</p>

Wearable Devices Raise Privacy Concerns

April 25, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<div class="post_content"> <div> <p>Wearable devices such as <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/store?gclid=CJffvq7a-70CFaVQOgod9hAAog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fitbit </a>or <a href="https://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Glass</a> are raising concerns over their data recording features.</p> <p>And while some are finding a niche in sports, health and other professional sectors, privacy advocates say there are serious implications associated with many of these devices that should have been taken into account during their development.</p>

Tech Titans’ Dirty Linen Won’t Be Aired Further

April 24, 2014  ·  John M. Simpson

<p><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2726" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/images_eric-schmidt.jpg" style="width: 179px; height: 275px; float: right;" width="300" height="462" />A settlement has been reached in the $3 billion class action lawsuit on behalf of 64,000 high tech workers who charged that Silicon Valley tech titans like Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin illegally conspired to keep their wages down.<br /> <br />

Google Admits Scanning Users’ Email

April 23, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

“Forget Big Brother – Google is better!” Those were the words of German media executive Mathias Döpfner in his April 17 open letter to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, in which he stated his fear that Google envisions a world with no antitrust and privacy protections. Coincidentally, Döpfner’s letter came a few days after Google issued a clarification of its new terms of service for Gmail users, essentially admitting that it scans users’ emails not after they are stored but also as they are being sent and received.

White House Updating Online Privacy Policy

April 23, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>A new Obama administration privacy policy released Friday explains how the government will gather the user data of online visitors to WhiteHouse.gov, mobile apps and social media sites, and it clarifies that online comments, whether tirades or tributes, are in the open domain.</p>

Google Tops League of Spending on Lobbying US Politicians

April 23, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/NewsArticle"> <p class="body_text">Google spent $3.82 million lobbying the USA's federal lawmakers and regulators during the first quarter of 2014 making it the top spender among 15 top technology and telecommunications companies according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure forms Consumer Watchdog said today.</p>

Toxic Wildomar Homes

April 18, 2014  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-10539" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/screen_shot_2014-04-18_at_11.42.55_am.png" style="width: 350px; height: 197px; float: right;" width="552" height="311" /></p>