जनता का आदमी

Anonymous donors in Minnesota’s Twin Cities were certainly in the giving mood over the weekend, slipping a $500,000 check into a Salvation Army kettle. Unsurprisingly, it’s snagged the record for the area’s biggest kettle donation to date.

The charitable organization said that the donation made at a grocery store on Saturday handily beats the previous record for a single kettle donation, which was $25,000, reports The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Usually, a kettle brings in about $30 in an hour.

“Yes, we believe the check is definitely good,” a Salvation Army spokeswoman told the paper on Monday. “We have been in touch with the donors, but they want to remain anonymous. This couple has supported the Army before with large checks in kettles, but never anything close to this level.”

The couple behind the donation said the act of generosity was their way of saying thank you, and was made to encourage others to do the same. On a smaller scale, perhaps.

“You get to a point in life where it’s time to take care of others, the way you were taken care of,” the donors said in a statement issued through the charity.

Couple slip $500,000 check into Salvation Army kettle in Rosemount [The Minneapolis Star Tribune]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Savvy holiday shoppers who didn’t want to fight the crowds on Black Friday may still be battling congested online traffic in order to obtain the plethora of Cyber Monday deals today. That’s especially true if you’re trying to score some goodies from Target, as the retailer’s website crashed this morning. 

The Washington Post reports that at about 10:20 a.m. ET today, Target’s homepage, and the pages for many of its products, stopped shoppers in their online tracks with the explanation that “high traffic’s causing delays.”

Target tells the Post that it is working to restore full functionality to the website. Until then, however, the company will regulate the flow of traffic on its site.

By noon ET Monday, some shoppers were able to access the site. However, our attempts to reach the Target.com homepage from computers in Pennsylvania and New York both turned up “Access Denied” error messages.

The retailer’s online woes are likely a result of its Cyber Week promotion which offers 15% off “virtually everything online.”

“Both traffic and order volumes are exceeding Target’s Thursday Black Friday event, which was our biggest day ever for online sales,” the company said in a statement Monday. “To help manage the volume, we have been metering traffic to the site.”

This, of course, isn’t Target’s first run-in with heavy traffic wreaking havoc on its website. Over the summer, the retailer’s site crashed during the debut of its limited-time collaborative Lilly Pulitzer line.

The company said at the time that the site didn’t technically “crash,” but that Target did make the strategic decision to limit some customers’ access to certain parts of Target.com. The site was also made inaccessible for several minutes to avoid a crash.

In 2011, the company suffered a months-long glitchy mess with Target.com. The most high-profile problem occurred in mid-September when the rush to purchase items from the new Missoni for Target line crashed the site. Problems continued after that, including further crashes, missing items and mysterious debit card charges… and re-charges… and re-charges.

Target’s Web site is experiencing delays on Cyber Monday [The Washington Post]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

If you’re in the market for a new home, you could surely find something for $250,000 — heck, why settle for looking for a house when you could just buy an entire ghost town? An abandoned South Dakota town that was on the market for $400,000 back in 2014 is still up for grabs, and now at a bargain price.

Swett, S.D. is still on the market after 16 months, reports The Rapid City Journal. The unincorporated hamlet about two hours from Rapid City comes with a bar (currently closed), a single house, workshop, three trailers and 6.16 acres of land.

The real estate agent in charge of the listing says she fielded an avalanche of phone calls and emails from people interested in buying the town when the news first hit, many of them with quite… unique plans for the property.

She tells the Rapid City Journal that the weirdest idea came “from a guy out of Nebraska who wanted to bring in 2,000 women from Russia, and 600 men who were felons, and he was going to build acrylic houses and run cameras 24 hours a day,” she said. “I told him he needed to call the state because I couldn’t deal with the permits for anything like that.”

Three written offers fell through for various reasons, but the agent says she’s still getting phone calls, and is surprised that the town hasn’t sold yet. The bank has now cleaned up the land, hauling away three decaying mobile homes and other paraphernalia, and has deeply discounted the price in the hopes of finally finding a buyer.

“They even installed shiny new town signs for Swett,” the agent said. “The old ones had bullet holes in them.”

FOR SALE: An entire South Dakota town [The Rapid City Journal]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

So many things can delay a flight — weather, traffic, minor technical glitches to name just a few — and yet nearly three-quarters of all flights arrived at their destination on schedule last year. A new study suggests that this achievement might not just be the result of increased efficiency, but of padded schedules.

OAG Aviation Worldwide, a British company that collects and analyzes travel data, found that since 1996 many airlines have increased the block of time set aside for flights, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

For example, the company examined 1,400 flights scheduled between Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport and found that the allotted time for the trips increased 8% on average from 1996 to 2015.

According to the study, none of the flights in 1996 took longer than 90 minutes, while those scheduled nearly 20 years later had flight times between 91 and 110 minutes.

OAG suggests that increased travel time was tacked on by airlines seeking to post better on-time rates to attract customers.

“At airports which are congested, airlines need to keep schedules realistic so their timetables are reliable,” the study said.

A spokesperson for an airline trade group, Airlines For America, tells the L.A. Times that the notion is simply wrong.

“We have the same goals as our customers, which is to get them, their luggage and packages to their destination safely and on time,” the spokesperson said.

Are airlines padding flight times to improve on-time performance? [The Los Angeles Times]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Menus at New York City’s chain eateries will be getting a makeover this week, as the city’s rule requiring warning labels for particularly salty menu items goes into effect.

The rule is the first of its kind, and will mean that chain restaurants have to include a salt-shaker emblem on any offering that contains more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams — around a teaspoon — of sodium. Here’s the warning label:

This is the latest move in NYC’s nutritional mission, in an effort to get residents to cut down on salt. Health experts say most people consume too much sodium — on average, about 3,400 mg per day — which could lead to high blood pressure and heart problems.

Many folks might not realize how much salt they’re eating, health advocates say: for example, Applebee’s Chicken Fajitas Rollup clocks in at 3,600 mg of sodium; Chili’s Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad has 3,470 mg and Olive Garden’s Tour of Italy entrée packs in 3,830 mg of salt per serving.

“With the high sodium warning label, New Yorkers will have easily accessible information that can affect their health,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said in September, when the Board of Health approved the new warning.

Some restaurateurs are against the salt labels, saying that new federal menu labeling guidelines will be taking effect in 2016, which could require them to revamp their menus twice.

“This is just the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops that restaurants here in New York must jump through. Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success,” Melissa Fleischut, President and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, said when the salt initiative passed in September.

Though restaurants are supposed to comply as of Tuesday, NYC won’t begin collecting fines until March 1.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Earlier this month, Volkswagen announced that an internal investigation into the carmaker’s use of “defeat devices” to evade emission standards in nearly 11 million vehicles worldwide uncovered a second issue: nearly 800,000 cars included understated levels of carbon monoxide emissions and rule usage. But a new report puts the timing of the finding into question, with some sources claiming executives with the car manufacturer knew of the problem more than a year ago. 

Reuters, citing German Publication Bild am Sonntag, reports that VW executives were previously made aware that many of its vehicles were less fuel-efficient than marketed.

Investigators for VW initially said on Nov. 3, that an internal probe meant to clear up the ongoing diesel emissions scandal found that CO2 levels and fuel consumption figures for some models were set too low during the carbon certification process.

“Based on present knowledge around 800,000 vehicles from the Volkswagen Group could be affected,” the company said in a statement. “An initial estimate puts the economic risks at approximately two billion euros (about $2.19 billion).”

While VW declined to comment on whether or not the company had knowledge of the overstated fuel efficiency numbers a year ago, Bild am Sonntag reports that former chief executive Martin Winterkorn decided in the spring to pull one model off the market related to the discrepancy.

That car, not sold in the U.S., was the Polo TDI BlueMotion. Reuters reports that VW said at the time – and reiterated on Sunday – that the car was pulled because of low sales figures.

“The offering of the Blue Motion TDI Polo was suspended in all markets due to subdued demand,” a VW spokesperson tells Reuters. “We are currently testing all models built from 2012 for differences in CO2 levels from the listed values.”

In other VW news on Monday, Bloomberg reports the carmaker has submitted fixes for the defeat devices in all three of its diesel motor types in Germany.

While the plans, if approved, for a fix in Germany will likely cover all 8.5 million vehicles affected in Europe, that doesn’t mean U.S. regulators will give the proposals the go-ahead.

On Nov. 20, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board – the agencies that first brought the emissions scandal to light – announced that VW had submitted its initial proposal for addressing the issue in its 2.0-liter diesel vehicles.

It’s unclear for now what the proposed fixes – both in the U.S. and Europe – entail.

VW knew fuel usage in some cars was too high a year ago: report [Reuters]
VW Proposes Fixes for All Three Dirty Diesel Motors in Germany [Bloomberg]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Going online for your Black Friday sales fix is now just as popular as trudging out to the mall to shop, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation.

According to the survey results [PDF], more Americans did their shopping online than in stores each day of the holiday weekend.

This includes Black Friday, the most-hyped in-store shopping day of the year. The survey says that 72.8% of respondents did in-store shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, a hair shy of the 73.1% who shopped online.

That was by far the narrowest margin between the two shopping methods. Online also beat out bricks-and-mortar on Thanksgiving (39.8% vs. 34%), and on Saturday (49% vs. 45.9%) and Sunday (32.9% vs. 19.1%).

The huge disparity on Sunday’s numbers seems to indicate that consumers get exhausted with the physical process of shopping — driving, parking, browsing, waiting in line — but they still want to look for good deals while they’re available.

According to the survey, slightly more than half of the in-store shoppers said they couldn’t pass up the savings. This seems to indicate that price is the key factor in their decision. Meanwhile, only 31.2% said they hit the stores because it’s a tradition. Those people will continue to show up every year, but you can expect online shopping to only grow more popular as the savings-oriented consumers realize they can get most, if not all, the in-store deals from the comfort of their home.

The NRF survey does give credence to some retailers’ insistence on opening their doors Thanksgiving evening. When breaking down the hourly in-store visits on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the single biggest time for shopping was not Black Friday morning, but 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving — the hour when several major retailers opened for business.

More than 13% of people who shopped in stores this weekend showed up at that time, significantly more than other popular hours like midnight (4%) and 6 a.m. (5%), or 9 a.m. (7.8%) on Friday.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Two years after Amazon debuted its delivery drone to the masses, the e-commerce giant is back with a new demo video showing its latest prototype for its Prime Air unmanned aerial vehicle.

Amazon enlisted British broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson — known for his gig co-hosting TV show Top Gear — to narrate a scene depicting the company’s vision of the delivery future: when your “naughty, naughty” bulldog eats your daughter’s soccer cleat before the big game, Prime Air could come in handy by bringing a replacement set of footwear through the air from a warehouse and setting it down in the family yard. All in 30 minutes or less, Amazon says.

“In time there will be a whole family of Amazon drones, different designs for different environments,” Clarkson says in the footage, while the drone coasts over a suburban landscape. “This one can fly for 15 miles,” he says. “And it knows what’s happening around it. It uses ‘sense and avoid’ technology to, well, sense and then avoid obstacles on the ground and in the air.”

Compared to Amazon’s first delivery drone video, released in December 2013, the new version of the aircraft appears to fly higher and seems more stable.

“Amazon Prime Air is a future service that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones,” Amazon says on its Prime Air site.”Flying under 400 feet and weighing less than 55 pounds, Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated ‘sense and avoid’ technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more.”

There are a few intentional things in that statement: an early draft of the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules for drones required drones to stay within a user’s line of sight, but with this video, Amazon is perhaps trying to show that the vehicles can be flown safely at farther distances.

Mentioning the weight of less than 55 pounds is also in response to the FAA, which is currently working on its rules for registering drones that weigh — you guessed it! — less than 55 pounds.

“Putting Prime Air into service will take some time,” Amazon said. “We will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

So many people do their holiday shopping online that the idea of “Cyber Monday” seems like a relic of an era when online retail was a novelty in search of legitimacy. Still, the name — and the sales — persist, but shopping on the job today could land you in a heap of trouble with the boss.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reminds us all that many companies have policies about non-work uses for the computers and smartphones they provide to employees. And with more than 40% of U.S. workers saying they plan to spend at least one hour of work time going online to do their Christmas shopping, some businesses might be getting a bit peeved that these usage policies are being violated.

The paper points to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, which found that while 13% of employers are willing to look the other way when it comes to holiday shopping during work hours (so long as employees’ work still gets done on time), 32% say they have a no-tolerance policy for online shopping.

Yet another survey claims that more bosses have fired people for online shopping — up from 8% to 12% in a single year. This matches up with other stats showing increased monitoring of employees’ online browsing. More than a quarter of employers in the survey say they have fired a worker for using the Internet for non-work purposes.

You’re probably going to shop online at work regardless — and you’re likely reading this on your work time, possibly in violation of company policy — but just be mindful that your boss may be keeping tabs on those who spend the most amount of time doing something other than the jobs they’re being paid to do.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Let’s kick off the holiday shopping season with news of a data breach that may involve some toys you’ll be wrapping in the coming weeks. Popular children’s electric toy maker VTech has announced that customer information fell into the wrong hands earlier this month. 

VTech announced Friday that on Nov. 14, an “unauthorized party” accessed customer data housed in its Learning Lodge app store, which allows customers to download apps, games, e-books and other content for VTech products.

While the company assured users that the Learning Lodge does not store credit card information or Social Security numbers, the database does include data like names, e-mail addresses, encrypted passwords, IP addresses, mailing addresses, download histories, and answers to password-retrieval questions.

“Upon discovering the unauthorized access we immediately conducted a thorough investigation, which involved a comprehensive check of the affected site and implementation of measures to defend against any further attacks,” VTech said in a statement.

The company didn’t specify how many users may have been affected by the breach, but it currently provides services to people in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Latin America, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

Motherboard reports that the compromised information may include data for nearly 5 million adults who have purchased VTech products and the first names, genders, and birthdays of more than 200,000 children.

“The investigation continues as we look at additional ways to strengthen our Learning Lodge database security,” said VTech. “We are committed to protecting our customer information and their privacy, to ensure against any such incidents in the future. Our Privacy Statement can be found on our website here.”

[via Motherboard]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

No matter where you celebrate Thanksgiving and what you’re eating, take a moment to be thankful that this suggested tradition from the mind of a marketer never caught on: lighting up a Camel cigarette after every course of your meal. No, not after dinner, after every course.

This ad is a Consumerist tradition, since it reminds us how terrible the past really was. Even if future generations might judge us for having cups of soda with every course of our holiday meals today.

It appeared in LIFE magazine on November 23, 1936.

“The best meal I ever ate would be a disappointment if I couldn’t enjoy Camels,” the man in the hat at lower left is quoted saying. He may have some low culinary standards.

Fortunately, there are fewer Americans than ever smoking cigarettes of all brands between courses on Thanksgiving, and on every other day of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving, American Consumerists!

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

At the beginning of this week, we took inspiration from reader Tom’s photo of a margarine tub, and asked our readers to send in your favorite funny store-brand product names. They could be fanciful or funny in their descriptive bluntness: they just had to be funny. You submitted plenty: let’s unload this grocery cart of amusement.

From Canada, Daniel sent along his favorite store-brand lemon-lime sodas: President’s Choice Spritz Up, and IGA’s Choose Up.

Hy-Top’s Panburger Partner is perfect, somehow inventing the perfect name for ground hamburger and pasta in a pan.

Spooki sent along Price Chopper’s Nutty Nuggets, which are store-brand Grape Nuts.

Michael found versions of Chex at Market Basket that are quite descriptive.

Another submission from up Ty north: this IGA version of Froot Loops is called “Fruity Hoops” in English and “Fruits Rigolos” (Funny Fruits) in French, leaving us to wonder what the French word for “Froot” is.

Another unhealthy cereal choice over at Aldi is Cocoa Peanut Butter Spheres, which is a classic right up there with Crispy Hexagons.

There’s something about creating generic alternatives for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter that bring out the best and worst in marketers.

Melissa sent along two, Fareway’s “Could it be Butter?”

Making your product’s name a question invites people to say “no,” which may not be what they intended. Isn’t the point here to not be butter?

She also points out Hy-Vee’s version, Best Thing Since Butter, which is a spread that contains some dairy.

All of the good names must have been trademarked by the time Acme got in the game. Robin sent this picture along:

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

One of our favorite Black Friday trends that’s been spreading across the country is the animal shelter doorbuster: that is, busting adoptable animals out from behind animal shelter doors and into new and loving homes. The promos use the idea of “Black Friday” to push pets with black and white fur to create super-cuddly sale events where adoption fees are waived.

This year, the event even has a corporate sponsor: accessories and apparel seller Zappos is sponsoring adoption fees at Best Friends Animal Society shelters and other affiliated shelters and rescues across the country.

Here’s a selection of promos you’ll find across the country:

Bonnie Hays Small Animal Shelter, Hillsboro, OR: $10 adoption fees on all cats that are black or black and white.
BrightSide Animal Center, Redmond, OR: They’re calling it a “cuddlebuster” special, with 50% off all cats and dogs with black or mostly-black fur.
Clark County Humane Society, Neillsville, WI: No adoption fees on any cats or dogs through Monday, November 30. Sponsored by Zappos.
HumaneCNY, Liverpool, NY: Adoption fees waived Friday and Saturday for cats and dogs over 1 year old.
Idaho Humane Society, Boise, ID: 50% off adoption fees until noon, and 25% off from noon to 6 PM.

Humane Society of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, FL: Opening an hour early; adoptions will be free for some pets during that “doorbuster” hour. Half off regular price for the rest of the day.
Jacksonville Humane Society, Beach Boulevard, FL: No adoption fees Friday through Saturday; other fees like dog licenses may apply.
SBK Animal Shelter, Blountville and Kingsport, TN: $20 off adoption fees on black cats and dogs.
Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, Georgetown, TX: No adoption fees on any cats or dogs through Monday, November 30. Sponsored by Zappos.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

So your mother-in-law is asking you again, whether she’ll ever be a grandmother. Your options include feigning a disaster in another room, straight up ignoring her or claiming you have to go to the bathroom, again. Or, you could turn on a Thanksgiving-themed movie and have everyone gather round, shut up and watch it together.

Thanksgiving movies might not be as abundant as Christmas flicks, but there are still some holiday-related titles streaming on Netflix you can use as an excuse for not talking to anyone for a few hours.

1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987): You’ve got your John Candy, you’ve got your Steve Martin, it’s set in 1987 and there’s perhaps no more perfect turkey day flick than this pre-bromantic comedy road-trip romp. How are these two total strangers who are NOTHING alike going to make it home from New York City to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving when their flight gets canceled? The spoiler alert is in the movie’s title.

2. Dutch (1991): Ed O’Neill has a new girlfriend and is not about to muck up the holidays for her. So of course he volunteers to pick up her kid (a young, pre-Empire Records Ethan Embry) from boarding school. He’s a brat straight out of hell and their trip home for Thanksgiving is accordingly awful.

3. American Son (2008): If you’re in the mood for a drama, this flick involves a 19-year-old marine who finds out that he’s deploying to Iraq earlier than planned. He goes home to tell his family the news over a traditionally dysfunctional Thanksgiving meal, and hilarity does not ensue.

4. The Last Waltz (1978): For you music lovers, this Martin Scorcese flick features the final concert by The Band, which was staged at San Francisco’s Winterland arena on Thanksgiving Day 1976. No turkeys involved.

5. Addams Family Values (1993): You can watch the first Addams Family movie beforehand if you feel like it, but the sequel is the one with the Thanksgiving theme. Wednesday Addams leads a retelling of the First Thanksgiving where the Native Americans win in a way only Christina Ricci in white makeup and a dark wig can do it.

6. Rocky (1976): What do you mean this isn’t a movie about Thanksgiving? Fine, it’s not, but there’s another one of those fantastic family meal scenes that makes us all feel like we’re in this together.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

There are two reasons why you might want to know which stores are open or closed on Thanksgiving Day this year: you want to go shopping, or you want to know which stores to boycott (or at least vaguely scorn) because they choose to open on the holiday. Whatever you’re interested in doing, here are the hours during which you can stop by the store and do it.

We’ve mostly left off stores that tend to be part of enclosed malls; they will generally follow the lead of the mall management and/or the larger anchor stores. Check with your local store or the chain website to make sure you have the correct hours, since it may vary according to the open hours of the mall or your local laws.

If you live in one of the states where being open for business on Thanksgiving Day is actually illegal, any Thanksgiving hours on this page don’t apply. You can run for the border accordingly, though.

Barnes & Noble: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 7 AM to 11 PM on Friday.
Belk: Opening 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 10 PM on Friday.
Bed, Bath and Beyond: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 6 PM to 9 PM on Friday.
Best Buy: Opening at 5 PM Thanksgiving Day; closed from 1 AM to 8 AM on Friday morning, then open until 10 PM.
Costco: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 9 AM to 8:30 PM on Friday.
Dick’s Sporting Goods: Open 6 PM Thanksgiving Day to 2 AM Friday. Reopening at 5 AM on Friday, closing at 10 PM.
Family Dollar: Open 7 AM to 7 PM Thanksgiving Day. Open regular hours on Friday.
GameStop: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open 5 AM on Friday.
JCPenney: Open 3 PM Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open until 10 PM on Friday.
Kmart: Open 6 AM Thanksgiving Day until 10 PM on Friday.
Kohl’s: Open 6 PM Thanksgiving Day, closing at midnight. Open 8 AM to midnight on Friday.
Lowe’s: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open 5 AM on Friday.
Macy’s: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 10 PM on Friday, though closing times will vary by location.
Meijer: Deals start at 6 AM in stores that are open 24 hours.
Old Navy: Opening 4 PM Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 12 AM on Saturday. That’s longer than Toys ‘R’ Us, but not as long as Kmart. These hours may vary by mall, so check before heading over at 3 AM.
Sears: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, closing at midnight. Reopening from 6 AM to 9 PM on Friday.
Staples: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open at 6 AM on Friday.
Target: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 11 PM or midnight on Friday.
Toys/Babies ‘R’ Us: Opening at 5 PM on Thanksgiving Day; stores will keep their doors open until 11 PM on Friday.
Walmart: Most stores will already be open, but the Black Friday event starts at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanks to DealNews for some of this information: they have a comprehensive list of Thanksgiving and Black Friday opening times.

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by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

That big fat “Superfish”-style security hole in Dell laptops that we told you about yesterday? Turns out, it’s not alone. There’s another basically just like it on Dell laptops, too. ZDNet has instructions for how to remove these troublesome certificates from your laptop if it has them. [ZDNet]
by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Government agencies are basically giant businesses: they hire new people all the time, and it’s very rarely news when they do. Occasionally, though, the match of person and position may hint at big news for consumers, as one recent hire at the FCC just did.

The new guy is named Jonathan Mayer, as the Washington Post reports, and his new gig might signal a big shift at the FCC toward protecting consumer privacy.

Mayer’s new job is to be the top technology guy working on investigations into consumer protection issues relating to security and privacy, the WaPo explains. Perhaps it doesn’t sound like that should be a big deal, but until now issues like data breaches, hacks, and other privacy issues have more-or-less been handled entirely by a different agency, the FTC.

But as everything commercial moves increasingly to an all-digital space, the line between the FTC’s and FCC’s jurisdiction has gotten a little blurry in the middle. Hiring Mayer may signal that the FCC intends to step it up in the consumer privacy arena, at least as it relates to phone, TV, or internet service. And frankly, they probably have to: as a side-effect of this year’s net neutrality rule, internet services are now classified as common carriers… which are exempt from certain regulation by the FTC.

Mayer is not the sort one typically expects to find in a regulatory leadership position. For one thing, he’s still in his late twenties, so he doesn’t have the decades of experience one usually hears about.

In the years he has been working, though, he’s been busy in a very high-profile way. He spotted the privacy violation in Safari browsers that led to Google having to cough up $22.5 million to the FTC in 2012. He also helped develop the do not track standard for web browsers (that the FCC recently declined to enforce).

Most recently, earlier this year he found and announced that the tracking supercookie on Verizon phones could be accessed by third parties, despite what Verizon said. The FCC has since started an investigation into those trackers.

With this hire, the FCC could soon get tougher on privacy and security [Washington Post]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

The fraudulent lottery industry is huge in Jamaica, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from the pockets of victims, who are mostly in the U.S. and mostly elderly. For the first time, someone involved in the industry has been tried and sentenced in a federal court in this country for selling lists of leads to current and aspiring scammers.

The fallout in the lives of scam victims is devastating. Once on the hook, victims send thousands of dollars in the hope of receiving millions back, but in the end all they get are a barrage of phone calls demanding more money. Some victims have committed suicide.

Scammers contact their victims through the mail or over the phone, and they obtain the mailing lists that they use from specialized services. That’s the business that the 26-year-old Jamaican who was tried in North Dakota was in: he was a former scammer who went into the lead list business instead. He sold lists to hundreds of other scammers

The federal government found 80 victims who were on this seller’s lead lists, and their losses totaled $5.5 million U.S. Attorney Christopher C. Myers called the victims willing to tell their stories publicly “heroes,” since exposing scams is the only way to hold the people behind them accountable. “Until recently, these scammers operated with impunity,” Myers said in a statement. “We are helping to find them and hold them accountable for their crimes.”

There are no legitimate lotteries that you can win without entering, or that require you to send money to claim prizes.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

The Christmas show will go on this year at the home of one Washington man who takes a next-level approach to the holiday: his local homeowner’s association has decided it won’t sue him over his display, which in the past included hundreds of lights, a live camel, carolers and of course, Santa Claus.

The HOA and a local law firm told the Spokane, WA homeowner after his first event in 2014 that the light show went against clauses in his home agreement including noise levels, excessive brightness and nuisance, reports KREM-2.

On Oct. 26, the board sent the man a letter threatening to sue if he put on his Christmas light show for the second year, and gave him 10 days to respond before legal action was taken. The clock ticked onward and past that deadline, and no lawsuit had been filed.

The vice president of the HOA board said Tuesday that the group wouldn’t be suing, noting that they hadn’t been opposed to the decorations. Instead, they had a beef with the extra traffic and noise the event would bring to the area.

“I’m really pleased to hear that they’re moving beyond this threat of litigation. I think the reason is obvious. That is that I never violated any rules,” the homeowner told the new station. He added that last year’s event was also a fundraiser, allowing him to donate hundreds of dollars to local children’s charities.

HOA backs down from lawsuit over Hayden Christmas lights [KREM-2]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist