Archives: News
Archive of News from WirelessEd, in reverse chronological order.
- Headlines | Apple concedes on Right to Repair. Apple reversed its longstanding policy against selling spare parts, providing repair instructions, and making repair software tools available to customers with its announcement of a…
- Headlines | Last chance to get advance child tax credit. It could be a financial lifeline just in time for the holidays — a child tax credit payment to cover food, rent or presents for…
- Headlines | Workers won arbitration cases against employers just 1.6 % of the time. U.S. employers relied heavily on arbitration in the first months of the pandemic, pushing a record number of complaints involving discrimination, harassment, wage theft and…
- Headlines | Consumer watchdog to probe Big Tech payment systems. In its first significant action under a new director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Apple, Amazon, PayPal and other tech giants to reveal…
- Headlines | Your driver’s license could soon live on your phone. More than 20 states have either considered, tested or already launched digital versions of driver’s licenses that live on smartphones. Tech giant Apple plans to…
- Headlines | How to keep your phone charged and useful in a natural disaster. Turn on low power mode on your phone if it’s an option. Avoid draining activities. Don’t use your phone as a WiFi hotspot for other…
- Headlines | How to block Facebook from snooping on you. Facebook says it’s not literally activating the microphones on our smartphones, but it is tracking what we do in other apps, websites and even real-world…
- Headlines | Fraud alert: Malicious QR codes. Con artists have added QR codes to a variety of familiar scams. Based on reports to the BBB Scam Tracker, these hoaxes include advance fee…
- Headlines | What’s preventing Americans from getting the Emergency Broadband Benefit. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in our country, millions of Americans cannot connect to the internet because they can’t afford to, preventing them from going to…
- Headlines | Privacy of streaming apps and devices: Watching TV that watches us. We reviewed the privacy protections in the top 10 streaming apps, as well as the top five streaming devices, that include programming directed at kids…
- Headlines | T-Mobile hack exposed personal data of 40 million people. A cyberattack on T-Mobile exposed the information of more than 40 million people, with stolen files including names, birthdays and social security numbers. The company…
- Headlines | US to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities. The Biden administration announced Thursday it will automatically erase student loan debt for more than 300,000 Americans with severe disabilities that leave them unable to…
- Headlines | Turn off, turn on: Simple step can thwart top phone hackers. As a member of the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Angus King has reason to worry about hackers. At a briefing by security staff this year, he…
- Headlines | iPhone security no match for NSO spyware. Pegasus,the NSO’s signature surveillance tool, can collect emails, call records, social media posts, user passwords, contact lists, pictures, videos, sound recordings and browsing histories, according to…
- Headlines | 5 tricks to lower your Internet bill. Here are five tricks I learned from Internet service providers and consumer advocates. Try to switch providers. Check the website BroadbandNow to find all the…
- Headlines | 36 states sue Google over how it manages its Play Store. Thirty-six states, including Utah, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee, as well as the District of Columbia filed an antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s app store. …
- Headlines | How Big Tech created a data ‘treasure trove’ for police. When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they’re increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created…
- Headlines | Want a job? Employers say: Talk to the computer. A day after her interview for a part-time job at Target last year, Dana Anthony got an email informing her she didn’t make the cut.…
- Headlines | Rural areas need broadband to get workers. Rural areas have complained for years that slow, unreliable or simply unavailable internet access is restricting their economic growth. But the pandemic has given new…
- Headlines | Verizon is using a government discount to force you onto a new data plan. The government has a new program to help Americans pay their Internet bills. Unfortunately, companies like Verizon are twisting it into an opportunity for an…
- Headlines | The government wants to pay your Internet bill for a few months. The Emergency Broadband Benefit, or EBB, was launched to help a surprisingly wide range of people hit economically by the coronavirus pandemic. It can pay…
- Headlines | How to apply for a $50 discount on your broadband bill. The Emergency Broadband Benefit provides a discount of up to $50 a month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 a month…
- Headlines | How big tech got so big: Hundreds of acquisitions. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google gobbled up their competition to become behemoths of the tech industry, which has drawn attention from Congressional leaders and critics…
- Headlines | Tech firms like Facebook, Neurable want to link your brain to computers. Already, brain tech allows players to manipulate avatars in video games by concentrating on parts of the screen. And Facebook last month revealed plans to…
- Headlines | Facebook calls for data portability; expands info users can transfer off service. Facebook announced Monday it’s expanding a tool that allows users to transfer their data to other services. The social media giant will now enable users…
- Headlines | Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as next big disruptive force. Wall Street is warming up to the idea that the next big disruptive force on the horizon is central bank digital currencies, even though the…
- News Video | We’ve reached a global tipping point for reining in tech. Around the world, governments are moving simultaneously to limit the power of tech companies with an urgency and breadth that no single industry had experienced…
- Headlines | Facebook leak exposes personal data on half a billion users. Telephone numbers were just the top layer of what was stolen. Security researcher Alon Gal detailed that a person’s Facebook ID, full name, location, past…
- Headlines | CFPB’s new team has a message for banks it regulates: We’re back. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already sending a message that it’s getting tougher. On-site examinations are up, banking executives tell consultants. Big banks aren’t…
- Headlines | AT&T’s new arbitration clause isn’t doing you any favors. Go ahead and agree to AT&T’s new arbitration clause if you want (or if you have no choice). But don’t think the company is doing…
- Headlines | Social Security imposters use fake badges to fool victims. The Social Security Administration warns that phone scammers are creating “fake versions” of identification badges. “The scammers will text or email photos of the fake…
- Headlines | Coronavirus relief could net you $50 toward your broadband bill. A new bill, The Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, set to be introduced Thursday in the U.S. House and Senate, devotes more than $94 billion…
- Headlines | Amazon’s new rotating, follow-you camera is useful—and invasive. The covid-19 Zoom boom has turned us into camera operators. Making sure everyone’s face can be seen in the videoconference is a daily struggle. Along…
- Headlines | Government agencies increasingly are accessing private information. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have tapped a private database containing hundreds of millions of phone, water, electricity and other utility records while…
- Headlines | California can enforce its internet equal access law. A federal judge ruled that California can for the first time enforce its tough net neutrality law, clearing the way for the state to ban…
- Headlines | Civil rights groups ask Biden to oppose facial recognition. The American Civil Liberties Union and more than 40 other groups urged President Biden in a letter to freeze federal use of facial recognition and…
- Headlines | How the GameStop frenzy sabotaged a bid to ‘democratize’ finance. The episode with Robinhood Financial has unearthed a growing sentiment on the left: “Fintech” is just a fancy word for everything they already hate about…
- Headlines | Lacking a Lifeline: How help to pay low-income Americans’ phone bills failed. The coronavirus has reinforced the Internet as the fabric of modern American life, a luxury-turned-necessity for a generation now forced to work, learn and communicate…
- Headlines | Tips on how to master the vaccine-appointment website. Starting this week, there will be even more places you need to look for appointments online. Pharmacy chains including CVS and Walgreens are beginning to…
- Headlines | Consumer protection agency investigating Venmo. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is investigating money transfer app Venmo over the way it handles collections, a new regulatory filing shows. First reported by…
- Headlines | Apple’s new privacy ‘nutrition labels.’ Many were false.. You go to your iPhone’s App Store to download a game. Under a new “App Privacy” label added last month, there’s a blue check mark,…
- Headlines | Pressure builds to revive net neutrality rules. For more than two decades, Democrats and Republicans have warred over net neutrality, the idea that Internet providers should treat all Web traffic equally. At…
- Press Releases | New debt collection rule is a mixed bag for consumer rights. Bad news: New debt collection rule permits unlimited electronic access to consumers. Good news: It may eliminate "debt parking" by forcing debt collectors to reach…
- Headlines | Black Americans suffered the most under Trump-era CFPB, study finds. The paper, from two Boston College researchers, tracked consumer complaints, and the follow-ups recorded by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their findings show that in…
- Headlines | Consumer bureau director resigns at Biden’s request. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger resigned at the request of the newly sworn-in President Biden, clearing the way for his nominee to…
- Headlines | Biden choices for CFPB, SEC pivot to robust enforcement. President-elect Joe Biden is set to nominate Rohit Chopra, the former student loan ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to lead the consumer finance…
- Headlines | Millions flock to Telegram and Signal apps. Over the past week, tens of millions of people have downloaded Signal and Telegram, making them the two hottest apps in the world. Signal allows…
- Headlines | Ford is researching tech for bikes, e-scooters to ‘talk’ to cars. If bicycles and e-scooters could “talk” to cars on the road, riders would be safer — at least in theory. That’s the idea behind a…
- Headlines | Supreme Court limits abortion pill access (during a pandemic). The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a Trump administration request to reinstate restrictions for patients seeking to obtain a drug used to terminate early…
- Headlines | Citing ‘censorship,’ internet provider blocks Facebook, Twitter. A North Idaho internet provider, Your T1 WIFI, confirmed it is blocking Facebook and Twitter from its WIFI service for some customers due to censorship…
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