News

2022

May

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - May 2022. This month's INSIDER features stories about our recent activities, including a webinar exploring the impact of COVID on small businesses and a project using FinTech to improve financial wellness. Hotline Chronicles relates a woman's difficulty in receiving her income tax refund after attempting to have it sent to a prepaid card. And, we announce new settlements in our Class Action Database.

April

18

• Find out and fix what big data says about you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies that’s currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — the list includes 22

06

• Nueva publicación ayudará a la comunidad hispana en California a ejercer sus derechos de privacidad (Guía sobre los derechos según la ley de privacidad de California (California Consumer Privacy Act) ahora disponible en español). Se ha publicado en español la guía de Consumer Action y Consumer Federation of America diseñada para informar a los californianos sobre sus derechos según la ley de privacidad California Consumer Privacy Act. La guía, que alienta al consumidor a ejercer sus derechos, está disponible sin costo alguno para fines educativos.

• Nueva publicación ayudará a la comunidad hispana en California a ejercer sus derechos de privacidad (Guía sobre los derechos según la ley de privacidad de California (California Consumer Privacy Act) ahora disponible en español). Se ha publicado en español la guía de Consumer Action y Consumer Federation of America diseñada para informar a los californianos sobre sus derechos según la ley de privacidad California Consumer Privacy Act. La guía, que alienta al consumidor a ejercer sus derechos, está disponible sin costo alguno para fines educativos.

05

• Your digital footprint: It's bigger than you realize. A few years ago, Ken Crum started getting uncomfortable with how much of his life seemed to be online. The long-time computer programmer was particularly concerned by what companies appeared to know about him.

03

• New resource to help Hispanic Californians learn about and exercise their privacy rights (Guide to rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act now available in Spanish). A guide developed by Consumer Action and the Consumer Federation of America designed to educate Californians about and encourage them to exercise key rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act has been translated into Spanish. The guide is freely available for educational purposes.

March

15

• How California is building the nation’s first privacy police. Ashkan Soltani faces the daunting task of overseeing the first government body in the United States with the sole job of regulating how Google, Facebook, Amazon and other companies collect and use data from millions

February

28

• Cómo protegerse de las estafas más frecuentes. Las estafas por mensaje de texto, correo electrónico, Facebook y otros medios están en auge. Aquí te mostramos cómo evitar que un estafador te engañe.

16

• Senators unveil children’s online safety bill. The Kids Online Safety Act would require online platforms to provide parents and minors younger than 16 with “easy-to-use” tools to keep them safe, limit screen time and protect their data. It would demand

09

• Contractor to drop facial recognition requirement for all government agencies. The private contractor ID.me said it will drop the facial recognition requirement in the identity-verification software used by 30 states and 10 federal agencies, a major reversal following a backlash due to the technology’s

08

• Equifax breach settlement: Money for some, free monitoring for all. Equifax will pay up to $425 million in restitution to those directly impacted by the massive data breach of the credit bureau in 2017. A federal court gave final approval to the class-action lawsuit settlement in mid-January.

January

27

• Experian, Equifax, TransUnion rarely act on credit file complaints, report says. If you spot a mistake on your credit report and contact the credit bureau, there’s a good chance nothing will happen. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion together provided relief when alerted to errors less

24

• AGs sue Google stating they deceive consumers about use of location data. Attorneys general from D.C. and three states plan to sue Google, arguing that the search giant deceived consumers to gain access to their location data. The D.C. lawsuit details how Google users must

20

• Efforts to rein in Big Tech may be running out of time. A Senate committee is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would prohibit companies like Amazon, Apple and Google from promoting their own products over those of competitors. Many House lawmakers are pressing a

18

• Spotting spoofed websites. Here are a few things to consider when making a purchase online:  Malicious websites can be created to look like the real site from a reputable company fairly easily Never purchase anything with a

11

• Survey shows Californians are still unaware of privacy rights (Greater educational outreach, better rights notices would help residents get more out of the California Consumer Privacy Act). A survey of Californians commissioned by Consumer Action and Consumer Federation of America (CFA) shows that while more than two-thirds of respondents had seen a notice about their CCPA rights on the websites of businesses they visited in the previous 12 months, many had not exercised the law’s three key rights, and the top reason given for not doing so was that they did not realize they could.

03

• Consumer Action INSIDER - January 2022. Start 2022 right with Consumer Action's INSIDER newsletter. Learn about what we are up to with the goal of improving consumer protections and consumer rights.

2021

December

22

• Americans distrust Facebook, TikTok & Instagram with their data. It’s the rare thing that Americans of all ages and across the political spectrum largely seem to agree on: They don’t trust social media services with their information and they view

21

• The ‘most serious’ security breach ever is unfolding right now. On Dec. 9, word of a newly discovered computer bug in a hugely popular piece of computer code--log4j--started rippling around the cybersecurity community. By the next day, nearly every major software company was in crisis

16

• The ultimate guide to secure passwords. Password fatigue is real, but don’t let it stop you from making some small changes to protect your accounts, your wallet and your identity. Here are six easy things to do today: Stop