Los Angeles, CA -- Chrysler Fiat has failed to respond to a letter from the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog sent more than two weeks ago identifying a potentially fatal flaw in its 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The group identified the failure of the driver’s side airbag to deploy because of the lack of electrical conductivity due to a clock spring that is the same or similar design as the 1998- 2001 Chrysler Grand Caravan in which a recall of 1.29 million automobiles was ordered.

LOS ANGELES, CA – The California Department of Motor Vehicles approval today of Waymo’s application to test driverless robot cars in Santa Clara County is premature and key questions must be answered by both Waymo, Google’s driverless car unit, and the Department before any testing starts, Consumer Watchdog said.

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today joined the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy and 19 other consumer and health advocacy groups in calling on the Federal Trade Commission to hold app makers accountable for unfair and deceptive practices, including falsely marketing apps that require in-app purchases as "free" and manipulating children to watch ads and make purchases.

LOS ANGELES – The data breach of Google’s social network, Google+, that the company hid since last March, shows that the Internet Giant cannot be trusted to police its own platforms, Consumer Watchdog said today.

Consumer Watchdog first pointed out Google’s failure to police its social network in 2013 when it released a seven-month study that found the company had allowed Google+ to become a virtual playground for online predators with explicit sexual content.

LOS ANGELES, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called on U.S. antitrust authorities to follow the lead of Europe’s top competition official, Margrethe Vestager, and take decisive action against Google for unfairly using its monopoly power on its Android operating system.

LOS ANGELES, CA –Consumer Watchdog said today that the new privacy law passed today in California is a landmark reform and should be a bellwether for America.

"Today, Californians won the right to control their private information and to hold companies accountable for data breaches with stiff financial penalties," said Jamie Court. "This landmark reform should spread to all of America and be implemented for all Americans just as it has been for Californians. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – Consumer Watchdog today joined the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and six other consumer groups in calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the misleading and manipulative tactics of Google and Facebook in steering users to “consent” to privacy-invasive default settings.

LOS ANGELES – The 5-0 vote today by the California Senate’s Judiciary Committee to move a compromise privacy bill forward was a significant step toward ensuring Californian’s privacy, Consumer Watchdog said.

The bill, AB 375, may not be as strong as the California Consumer Privacy Act ballot initiative it is intended to replace, but for the first time gives consumers substantial control over their personal information and provides a right of private action for people to bring a suit if there is a data breach, the nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group said.

Privacy is a right enshrined in the California Constitution.  The only problem is that there are few laws and regulations in place to actually protect our privacy, particularly when it involves the use of our personal information online.

LOS ANGELES – An Internet law often cited by tech companies as a defense from any liability for material posted on their platforms must not be used as a shield by Grindr in a suit brought by a man who was victimized by posts on the site, Consumer Watchdog said today.