Archives: News
Archive of News from WirelessEd, in reverse chronological order.
- Headlines | Nearly half of accounts tweeting about coronavirus are likely bots. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University…
- Headlines | In financial trouble? Track everything companies tell you. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
One unfortunate lesson from recessions past is that companies and consumers often disagree about what help they settled on and under what terms. Can you…
- Headlines | Parking lots have become a digital lifeline. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
With cafes and libraries closed, Americans without internet access are sitting outside them to get free and fast connections.
{/exp:ce_str:ing} - Headlines | You can check your credit files once a week for free. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The three major credit-reporting agencies are making it easy for you to track what’s happening to your credit history in real time. You can now…
- Headlines | A superb smartphone for a humble price. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Apple’s recently introduced $399 iPhone SE marks a turning point in consumer technology. It’s a smartphone that delivers all the tech that we care about,…
- Headlines | Europe’s privacy law hasn’t shown its teeth. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Europe’s rules have been a victim of a lack of enforcement, poor funding, limited staff resources and stalling tactics by the tech companies, according to…
- Headlines | Companies join governments in rush to launch coronavirus tracking apps. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Companies including the global consultancy PwC are preparing to launch apps that track employees as they move through offices and factories, as the Financial Times…
- Headlines | Amid criticism, Treasury Dept. reviews seizures of $1,200 relief checks. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Earlier this month, the Trump administration began directly depositing stimulus checks in the bank accounts of 80 million Americans to help them survive the economic…
- Headlines | Governments’ latest weapon against coronavirus: Your smartphone. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
When California officials wanted to see how closely people were following social distancing guidelines last month, they tapped a powerful new data set — a…
- Headlines | IRS launching new tool to track $1,200 stimulus payments. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The tool is based on the Free File Fillable forms available on the IRS website. By April 17, the IRS plans to launch “Get…
- Headlines | Gig workers’ new unemployment benefits won’t come quickly. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill makes contractors eligible for unemployment insurance. But states want pay stubs that ride-hail drivers don't have.
{/exp:ce_str:ing} - Headlines | To track coronavirus, Israel moves to tap secret cellphone data. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has authorized the country’s internal security agency to tap into a vast and previously undisclosed trove of cellphone data…
- Headlines | What the T-Mobile and Sprint merger means for you. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Is my phone bill going up? T-Mobile promised phone bills will remain the same for the next three years.
Will my phone still be compatible?…
- Headlines | Judge approves T-Mobile-Sprint merger. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The deal would combine America’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers, creating a telecommunications juggernaut able to challenge AT&T and Verizon.
{/exp:ce_str:ing} - Headlines | Forced arbitration: A clause for concern. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Whether you realize it or not, chances are you have agreed to arbitration on dozens of occasions, forfeiting your right to take problems—even serious ones—with…
- Headlines | New rules gutting consumer watchdog from the inside. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
A new enforcement policy at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the most recent example of an agency drifting away from its mission to police…
- Headlines | Facebook will now show you exactly how it stalks you. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The new ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool reminds us we’re living in a reality TV program where the cameras are always on. Here are the privacy settings…
- Headlines | USDOJ accuses U.S. companies of being complicit in foreign scams. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal court for restraining orders against three home-based operators of telecommunications companies who, authorities allege, patched hundreds of…
- Headlines | New York City to force stores to accept cash. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
From a cup of coffee to a car ride, mobile devices or plastic cards are becoming the preferred, and sometimes exclusive, methods of payment.
The…
- Headlines | How to navigate a flood of streaming TV subscriptions. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
We wanted à la carte television, and now we have it—and it costs more than cable. Here’s how to watch your favorite shows without overpaying…
- Headlines | ‘Techlash’ hits college campuses. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
College seniors and recent graduates looking for jobs that are both principled and high-paying are doing so in a world that has soured on Big…
- Headlines | Uber changes its app to comply with gig worker law. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Uber Technologies Inc. made changes to its ride-hailing app in California, tweaking fares and features to respond to a new state law designed to reclassify…
- Headlines | California to unveil plan for consumer financial watchdog agency. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
After years of the Trump administration steadily rolling back federal consumer financial protections, California has decided enough is enough.
Details at this point are scant.…
- Headlines | Hidden costs found in delivered food menu prices. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
If you use food delivery services, you know there are a lot of added costs you pay for the convenience. But did you know in…
- Headlines | The tech that will invade our lives in 2020. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Amazon, Apple and Google announced that they were working together on a standard to help make smart home products compatible with one another.
In 2020,…
- Headlines | How we survive the surveillance apocalypse. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
There are lots of ways your data can, and will, be used against you. When we’re sick, we go to a doctor. To keep our…
- Headlines | Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth beacons hidden around the lecture hall connect with an app…
- Headlines | Twelve million phones, one dataset, zero privacy. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of…
- Headlines | Bank regulators urge ‘responsible use’ of alternative lending data. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Lenders and regulators are looking at how data beyond a basic credit score could be used to improve underwriting practices, for example by analyzing bank…
- Headlines | 190 million Americans shopped Thanksgiving weekend, mostly online. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
A record 189.6 million Americans went shopping over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation said Tuesday, and most of them did their spending…
- Headlines | Holiday scams are heavy on naughty, lacking in nice. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. But for consumers, it’s also the most dangerous. From gift card rackets to online fraud, consumers are…
- Headlines | Cyber Monday is usurping Black Friday, changing retailers’ offers. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
While many brands lock in their Black Friday plans months in advance—and commit to print ads and television spots promoting their predetermined doorbuster deals—Cyber Monday…
- Headlines | Consumer watchdog downplaying a major Obama-era tool. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The director of the country’s primary consumer watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), downplayed the role of the complaint database in its operations and…
- Headlines | Police can keep Ring camera video forever, share with anyone. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Police officers who download videos captured by homeowners’ Ring doorbell cameras can keep them forever and share them with whomever they’d like without providing evidence…
- Headlines | AT&T to pay $60 million over misleading ‘unlimited’ data plans. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
AT&T agreed to a $60 million settlement over allegations it misled more than 3.5 million customers by charging them for "unlimited" data plans while reducing…
- Headlines | Apple, TikTok draw congressional rebuke for skipping hearing. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Apple and TikTok took a lashing Tuesday for skipping a congressional hearing meant to explore the tech industry and its ties to China, an absence…
- Headlines | Facebook takes broad lashing at congressional hearing. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Congressional lawmakers delivered a broad lashing of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, sniping at his company’s plans to launch a digital currency called Libra, its pockmarked…
- Headlines | In House antitrust hearing, lawmakers focus on harms to privacy. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
House lawmakers on Friday pressed experts on how the market power of major tech platforms could hurt consumer privacy, showing that an antitrust investigation into…
- Headlines | Does your toothbrush have an app yet?. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
New technology is creating some excitement in the formerly ho-hum world of dental care.
{/exp:ce_str:ing} - Headlines | California law blocks debt collectors from emptying your bank account. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that will prevent debt collectors from emptying Californians’ bank accounts.
The bill — SB 616 — doesn’t…
- Headlines | Debunking a credit score myth: Use less than 30% of your credit limit. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The top two factors that determine your credit score are your payment history and the amount you owe. If your credit card limit was $1,000,…
- Headlines | Appeals court ruling upholds FCC’s canceling of net neutrality rules. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the Federal Communications Commission and upheld its repeal of Obama-era net neutrality protections, issuing a…
- Headlines | A no-internet, just-for-kids cell phone is here. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Much to our chagrin, it seems like the age where kids get their first cell phone is skewing younger by the day. And while it's…
- Headlines | Streaming wars scorecard: What to watch and how much it will cost. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
In the coming months, Disney (DIS), WarnerMedia and Comcast (CCZ)are all launching their own streaming platforms to compete with the likes of Netflix (NFLX) and…
- Headlines | Keeping consumer complaint database public is big win for consumers. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has decided it won’t remove from public view a complaint database that consumers use to ask for help in resolving…
- Headlines | These apps may have told Facebook about your sex life. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Your best friend may not know when you last had sex, but it’s possible that Facebook does.
At least two menstruation-tracking apps, Maya and MIA…
- Headlines | Lawmakers want to give us back the right to sue companies. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee passed a bipartisan bill, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, that would end forced arbitration.
A recent academic…
- Headlines | How to complain and get results. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
To breach the walls and successfully resolve your complaint, you must use the three p’s: patience, persistence and politeness. Don’t expect an instant fix, and…
- Headlines | Student allegedly denied U.S. entry over friends’ social media. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Ismail B. Ajjawi touched down at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday night, prepared to begin his freshman year at Harvard University. The 17-year-old Palestinian…
- Headlines | Major phone service providers agree to plan to slow robocallers. {/exp:ce_str:ing}
Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and nine other phone service providers reached a deal with 51 attorneys general across the country to install call-blocking technology. But the…
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April
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2019
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