Imagine a “credit score” that didn’t measure the likelihood that you will pay bills, but instead the likelihood that you’ll be a troublemaker. To your town, or your company or your government. Your “citizen score” would drop if you posted anything negative on social media — or if any of your friends [Keep reading]
Further evidence that the housing market is still broken: Even as home prices rise, first-time home buyers keep disappearing. In fact, first-timers now represent the smallest percentage of home buyers in three decades, according to a report issued Thursday by The National Association of Realtors. How can prices rise while an incredibly [Keep reading]
After about a month of inserting instead of swiping their plastic payment cards, many American consumers have strong opinions about the launch of chip-enabled credit and debit cards. While some are frustrated that chip transactions take a little longer than theold magnetic stripe purchases, they are far more worried that [Keep reading]
Not long ago, Internet data broker Spokeo was fined $800,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly published fake reviews online to hawk its service, advertised as “not your grandma’s phone book.” It also advertised to corporations that its reports were a way to “explore beyond the resume.” That was a [Keep reading]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 13, 2012 — “FYI EVERYONE — There’s a site called spokeo.com and it’s an online phone book that has a picture of your house..,” begins the breathless chain email, which has made its way around the Internet for the past three years or so. It’d be hard [Keep reading]
What ever will become of Big Data now? Is it possible the Kansas City Royals might be able to help you get a raise? The Royals have now won the World Series. The bunting, stealing, just put-the-ball-in-play Royals. The we-don’t-strike-out-or-hit-many-home-run Royals. The team that rejected the ways of Moneyball sit [Keep reading]
It’s every job applicant’s nightmare. You are in the running for a new position, then an HR representative calls with bad news: You’ve failed a background check. The firm thinks you have a criminal record! It’s a typical 21st Century database screw-up, but by the time you run down the [Keep reading]
You know I love a good privacy outrage as much as anyone. But a story last week in the Financial Times started a kerfuffle about Facebook posts and pictures impacting your all-important FICO credit score. FICO tells me in no uncertain terms this isn’t true. The incident is a good [Keep reading]
Remember last year when Verizon tried to trick its mobile users into trading incredibly personal information for a lame “rewards” program that only gave consumers near-worthless points in an auction game? Starting next month, it makes a lot more sense, thanks to the Verizon-AOL deal. Through “Verizon Selects,” people who took [Keep reading]
There’s a new crisis looming in the way Americans plan for retirement, and it’s not a much feared stock-market correction. The crisis is much more fundamental. For years, the accepted wisdom has been this: Invest all you can in that 401(k) or you are crazy. Not contributing to a 401(k) is [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan