During the heyday of the housing bubble, mortgage sellers made a killing via kickbacks. They often got bonuses for steering borrowers toward more expensive mortgages. Financial reform, including a strict rule that took effect in 2011 from the Federal Reserve known as the “Compensation Rule,” banned the practice of giving [Keep reading]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If power corrupts, does technological power corrupt absolutely? At an intimate workshop in Georgetown this week, just a quick Uber ride from the Halls of American power, discussion turned to a different power struggle — parents vs. teen-agers. Some of the brightest minds in the world are here to discuss the fragility of the life in [Keep reading]
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For the second time in the past 12 months, the agency that acts as the human resources department for federal employees has been hacked. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said on Thursday that it would be notifying 4 million current and former federal employees that hackers may have stolen their [Keep reading]
NOTE: Since this story broke on Credit.com earlier this week, PayPal has told BGR.COM that users will be able to opt-out of robocalling and robotexting. That is different from what PayPal told me, though it isn’t clear that this is a change or simply a clarification. As this story notes, PayPal has [Keep reading]
Time to break out the old nationwide atlas road map — it’s going to be a great summer for road trips, thanks to low gas prices. You might want to splurge on an app or GPS with up-to-date traffic information, too, because lots of other families will have the same [Keep reading]
While Washington continues its dog-and-pony show about a clumsy telephone network dragnet designed to find needles in haystacks, people really concerned about the future of the republic should simply look up — at all these low-flying planes making deliberate left-handed circles around D.C. and dozens of other cities. The FBI has [Keep reading]
Plenty of folks think they could never be outsmarted by a hacker; plenty of them are wrong. In fact, perhaps 97% are wrong. Two new studies make this point, and show the devastating consequences of being wrong. (This story originally appeared on Credit.com. Read it there.) Security firm McAfee has [Keep reading]
While many Americans are ill-prepared for a financial disaster, women are far worse off than men, according to a new study by BMO Harris Premier Services. The financial services firm says that men with any emergency savings have an average of $58,061 put away to deal with the sitution, compared to only $33,558 [Keep reading]
It’s the most vexing digital-age question: Should I share this? After the AdultFriendFinder.com hack and the IRS “Get Transcript” debacle, CNBC asked me to look into the topic of online oversharing. You can read the story I wrote here. But here’s one thing to think about: Oversharing rarely *feels* like oversharing. That [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan