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2021

November

17

• 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 new Self Service Repair program. This about-face comes just days…

07

• 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 children in households struggling to make ends meet. The American…

03

• 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 other grievances through a closed-door system largely weighted against consumers…

October

21

• 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 how their proprietary payment networks function.   

11

• 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 make digital licenses a key feature in its iOS 15…

August

31

• 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 people, don’t watch streaming videos and close any apps running…

30

• 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 stores. Here are seven steps to stop Facebook tracking. Quit…

26

• 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 loan, employment, and utility scams. Here’s how to play it…

25

• 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 school, working, accessing government benefits and connecting with friends and…

24

• 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 and families and found that most apps and devices are…

19

• 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 said the stolen files included information from approximately 7.8 million…
• 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 earn significant incomes.

July

28

• 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 said he got some advice on how to help keep…

19

• 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 security researchers and NSO marketing materials. The spyware can activate…

14

• 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 available service providers specific to your Zip code. Buy your…

08

• 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.  It argues that Google maintains a monopoly in the market…

June

22

• 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 by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services…

15

• 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. Anthony didn’t know why — a situation common to most…

May

18

• 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 urgency to those concerns, at the same time that President…

17

• 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 upsell. Last week, I wrote about the arrival of the…

13

• 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 $50 every month toward the cost of your Internet service,…

06

• 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 for households on qualifying tribal lands. You qualify for the…

03

• 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 who claim they’ve stifled innovation in the industry.

April

28

• 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 interpret your intent to move a finger to trigger digital…

20

• 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 to transfer a copy of their written posts and notes…

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