There’s a simple way to end the theft of millions of credit card numbers from merchants like Target or Home Depot: Stop giving merchants credit card numbers in the first place. One way to do that is to replace credit card account numbers with “token” data that merely represents the [Keep reading]
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees that America’s schools are in need of serious reform. And it’s an obvious leap to think technology is the fast lane to improvement. “Ed-tech” is where some of America’s thorniest issues collide, however. Big Brother. Marketing to kids. Privacy. Boondoggles. Attention deficit [Keep reading]
If you want to know why Gotcha Capitalism persists, so stubbornly in America — corporations surviving mostly on their ability to trick consumers — I can explain it to you in four words. No material financial impact. Recently, 45 states attorneys general thought enough about complaints about satellite radio firm [Keep reading]
You might think it’s weird that Comcast is planning to turn your home into a public WiFi hotspot, but two plaintiffs in California think it’s illegal. A lawsuit filed in a California federal court seeks class-action status, claiming Comcast is costing consumers electricity and bandwidth, and creating security risks, with [Keep reading]
In case you had any doubt about how hostile America is to workers right now, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared that up. Unanimously. In a twisted ruling that only a corporation could love, the court yesterday ruled that Amazon (via its contractor) does not have to pay warehouse workers [Keep reading]
When a company like Comcast sends you mail promising that it is going to give you something for free, I hope your first reaction is the same as mine. “Uh-oh. What will this cost?” And when a customer service rep *promises* you that something will or won’t happen, I hope [Keep reading]
“I’m right in one of those sane circles,” Dawn Dinegan wrote to me from her four-bedroom home an hour north of Madison, Wis. “Lots of decent housing for $100K … good schools and low crime.” Those “sane circles” are on a map I published recently listing 100 U.S. communities with jobs, affordable [Keep reading]
When you have a dispute over a bill with a company, sometimes it’s not enough to respond to a collections notice with evidence that the bill has been paid. Sadly, even if the collections firm appears to drop the matter it can still come up again, and again, and again. [Keep reading]
I write a lot about struggling Americans, and there are a lot of them. Some folks persistently complain that I am merely supporting the whining class. You know the refrain: Americans have it a lot better than they ever have, that all the lines of people carrying huge TVs out [Keep reading]
Last year, I reported on Sirius XM’s gotcha-laden business practices for tricking consumers into paying for their service (thanks for publishing it, Credit.com). In my case, the firm simply refused to allow me to sign up without agreeing to automatic renewal, which I hate. I had experienced surprise renewals from [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan