Consumer Affairs follows the story of TJ Maxx vs Consumers as they get sued for losing data due to "failing to maintain adequate computer data security of customer credit and debit card data". Well good.
For those who work for companies like this who are destined to be hurt again and again by data loss suits (as they should), maybe you should start pressuring congress to create a good credit freeze bill.
Consumeraffairs writes that congress may take a look at the credit card industry and how it's been hurting consumers for years. They talk about the practice of assessing fees for anything and everything, but don't forget about those difficult to understand agreements:
"Anyone who has ever tried to read a credit card agreement knows that the terms are simply incomprehensible," Warren said. "The inserts sent along with monthly bills to amend the card agreements are filled with language even a lawyer would have difficulty parsing."
It's as this point that some would say "well, if you don't understand it, then don't sign it". That's great in theory, but how many things in life actually work that way? Do you completely understand all the terms and conditions when you bought your car? Bought your house? Signed up for your last web service?
People have a right to simple to understand terms and conditions for everything they do. Not everyone is a lawyer and even they don't want to read pages and pages of crap just to open an account with a retailer.
Most of all, the expert witnesses emphasized the willingness of banks to lend to just about anyone as a prime reason for the explosion in consumer credit card debt.
This is called "Predatory Lending" and is similar to sending wine-of-the-month brochures to a list of Alcoholics Anonymous attendees.
"To make the assumption of debt more attractive to these households — and to entice them into carrying debt for longer periods — creditors lowered minimum payment balances from around five percent of principal to just over two percent," Manning said.
And this is called "Modern Slavery". Are you getting that I think the credit industry is in serious need of alteration?
After seven years of State of the Union addresses from the Bush administration, the American public has learned that President Bush’s policy recommendations are often based on misinformation. As such, Public Citizen has prepared the following guide to the 2007 speech so consumers can get complete and accurate information about the issues.
Public Citizen reports one of their recent victories against American Airlines on behalf of John Cerqueira, who was denied the right to ly after airline authorities thought he might be "Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent".
$400,000 dollars is a small price to pay for taking away an American's freedoms. The airlines and the TSA better figure that out in a hurry.
What Microsoft is trying to do is convert their software market into a licensing market. This way, no one owns software, only licenses. As an analogy, assume you've purchased the ever so expensive xbox 360, but you're moving accross town next month. When you hook up the game system in the new place, it refuses to play games stating that you need to call Microsoft to purchase a new site license. You call and demand to know what happened and the foreigner who answers says that the original purchase price of the xbox allows for only one site so you need to purchase the right to use it elsewhere.
Consumers who want to be in control of their own computers should stay away from Vista.
Slashdot points to an article about companies who have figured out a way to send commercials to nearby bluetooth devices. So now if you're walking near a fast food spot, you get a instant message on your phone offering a lunchtime special.
According to the article, the Netherlands (where the practice is widespread) has refused to classify it as Spam giving advertisers the legal green light to start jumping unsuspecting bluetooth phone users. Coming soon to America.
Security theater is the tem Bruce Schneier uses to describe a secruity measure that doesn't actually improve security as much as it makes us feel more secure. While he disagrees with most uses, he allows that sometimes, feeling better is a good thing. For example, hospitals that put RFID bracelets on newborns that will trigger an alarm if they go through the wrong doors helps reassure new mothers when the babies are out of their sight.
Granted, this is only harmless because there's no real security problem that is being covered up like in the case of offering credit monitoring services as a way to fight ID theft (which does not work).
The Maine House and Senate registered nearly unanimous opposition Thursday to the federal Real ID Act, which requires states to change their drivers' licenses into national IDs linked to a central database. The resolution is not binding on Congress, but says the Legislature refuses to implement the Real ID Act. It asks Congress to repeal the law.
Slashdot pointed to this article about a Microsoft press release stating that 22% of Windows Installations are pirated. Their basis for this conclusion? Failure rate of the Windows Genuine Advantage tool.
Self-absorbed boobs. I've never used any priated software, but I have been greatly tempted to get a hacked version of the software I DO own, just so I didn't have to deal with their invasive and unecessary activation scheme. There are so many times it's failed on me and I've had to call in to beg for them to let me use my OWN SOFTWARE, that I came very close to getting hacked copies…. Oh yes… very close.
Of course, you can't now because they force you to install an anti-piracy tool before letting you isntall any kind of security updates. And because Windows is rife with flaws and insecurity, not getting updates is like running through the streets late at night with a scrap of paper in your hand shouting, "I won, I won, Powerball millions woooooo!"
Microsoft needs to stop harassing every user for the sake of a few. They present it as if they're losing 20% revenue when that 20% is made up of pirates who won't buy the software ever. If you succeed in making Windows such a screwed up system that even the pirates won't touch it, chances are, neither will the rest of your market.
That seems to be an undercurrent (or more than an undercurrent) of thought on the web. Here is a list of 10 good reasons not to buy Vista.
The point about Windows being released with the need for a hardware upgrade is something I can relate to. When XP came out and I was still working retail, they were recommending a Pentium 333Mhz with 256Mb of RAM. I told people not to even try XP without a bare minimum of 400Mhz and 512Mb of RAM.
My experience is that they list what it takes to make the computer not fail when loading, not what it takes to make it run decently.
And from Badvista.org, where I found the link to the top 10 list, I also found this article:
Vista is being marketed to content producers, not consumers… These changes won’t enhance user security unfortunately as they were designed to protect only “premium contentâ€?… The new Vista scheme signals to me that they have exhausted new customer acquisition and are now focused on milking their existing market.
I have long suspected that the Marketing tactics for RFID would start with animals, move to criminals, the military, and then children (to prevent kidnappings of course), and then become common for everyone.
The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.
Hmm…. Prime cuts of meat… and military personnel. In the same sentence. I realize that military people have a reduced set of rights compared to civilians, but they deserve respect, not to be tagged like a piece of meat.
"It could help identify friends or foes, prevent friendly fire, and help save soldiers' lives," he said. "It's a very scary proposition when you're dealing with humans, but with military personnel, we're talking about saving soldiers' lives and it may be something worthwhile."
What a crock of MANURE! Tag our soldiers with wireless beacons? Sez one militant to another "That guy looks American." Other: "Yeah, I scanned his chip, he is". First Militant: "Ok, let's shoot him".
So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. So stupid. SO STUPID!
In a Washington Post article, they address the problem of false positives, where an innocent person is "wrongly detained" because their information is similar to someone's on the no fly list.
A specific example in the article is of Keiran O'Dwyer, a veteran American Airlines pilot who has been stopped and questioned over 80 times since 2003. They say that besides him, there are around 15,000 people, per week, that apply for redress for being mistakenly targetted due to TSA's screening systems.
An agency official said in an interview that the system, launched in February 2006, has eliminated about 17,500 detentions involving people entering the country at airports, seaports and at land borders. It is part of what the government says is an effort to prevent terrorism while not inconveniencing travelers or violating their privacy and civil liberties, though it is not yet applied to domestic flights.
Listen folks, have a little patience. If you're going to get a refund, that's great, but don't under any circumstances give part of it away to a tax preparer. It's just throwing away money.
In a not so surprising story, some large chain stores have been hacked and had their databases of customer information stolen creating a risk for thier customers.
The end result is that consumers are often left completely in the dark when data breaches occur, wondering if they dodged a bullet, or if the inconvenience and frustration of fraud is simply waiting to hit them at a later date.
I hate these stories. If they didn't data rape people in the first place, this wouldn't even be a problem.
In the Washington Post was a nice article explaining how even a normal average citizen can be tracked during her whole day through technology that exists right now. From the article:
Domino's tracks her name, phone number, address, and size and type of pizza ordered. Unless a store decides otherwise, the data are held forever. That way, Domino's can provide more personalized service — "Hi, Ms. Bernard, would you like your regular — mushroom and sausage?"
This is classic data rape. She didn't ask them to store it, and they didn't ask her permission, they just took it. No company should be allowed to do this.
Bernard's credit card companies know her income and her shopping habits. They can share her information with affiliates without her permission and need not stop even if she asks them to.
Cheery.
I also found interesting the section talking about RFID. I was happy to see that they included the information about how RFID can be hacked.
The question is, what will happen now that it's being monitored by the court that should have been monitoring it in the first place? Why is Bush allowing this? It can only be because he thinks they won't do anything about it.
Sixwise gives and in-depth review of Best Buy's plan to "actively…eliminate " what they call "devil" customers. I've written about this before, but I like how they list specific actions that could land you on the "blacklist".
Most notably, this is the advent of "customer reports" similar to credit reports where you will be assigned a number based on profitablity and treated accordingly. If you don't want to see that happen, make sure you let your legislation know.
Under the new law, anyone attempting to "knowingly and intentionally" acquire the phone records of a third party by making false representations to a phone company or selling such illegally obtained records will face up to ten years in prison and fines.
Is it just me or does this seem really wrong? Why did we have to make a law about this? Wasn't it obviously a bad thing already?
Just so we can feel a little more warm and fuzzy about our government, here's a snippet from Ars Technica about how it's not just the FBI abusing power these days. From the article:
Wired's Ryan Singel adds a bit more to the story with the tidbit that the Pentagon plans to hang on to the records and feed them into TALON, the database project that the military uses for the data-mining part of its anti-terrorism efforts. Great! This is especially encouraging in light of the comments of Pentagon officials quoted by the Times who claim that these records are typically used to knock names off of the suspects list. In other words, they look at the records, determine that Mr. Smith is completely innocent, has no ties to terror, and got his money legitimately, then they promptly feed his data into an anti-terror database.
I guess that innocent until proven guilty thing isn't good enough anymore.
