The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Google-YouTube $170 million settlement for violations of kids’ privacy law too weak, critics say

Google and its subsidiary YouTube agreed to pay a record $170 million Wednesday to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General’s Office that YouTube illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent.

The settlement requires Google and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York for allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule. The $136 million penalty is the largest amount the FTC has gotten in a COPPA case since the law was enacted in 1998.

In a lawsuit filed against the companies, the agencies allege that YouTube violated the COPPA Rule by collecting personal information – identifiers that track users across the Internet – from viewers of child-directed channels, without notifying parents and getting their consent. YouTube earned millions of dollars by using the identifiers – cookies – to deliver targeted ads to viewers, according to the lawsuit.

What to look for in Labor Day 2019 sales

With summer coming to an end and the back-to-school shopping keeping people busy, it’s helpful to have information about Labor Day sales so you can get the best deals possible. During the Labor Day sales, you'll find lots of bargains. Look for reduced prices on clothing, appliances, computers, phones, electronics, and furniture.

WalletHub, a personal-finance website, has analyzed the Labor Day sales this year and offers information on the top deals:

Best labor day deals and sales

Dishwashers are the best items to buy in September, compared to the rest of the year.
 

2019’s 10 best Labor Day deals

1. Invicta Women's Watch – 50 percent off	6. Sealy Queen Mattress – 63.09 percent off
2. Kenmore Washer – 46.15 percent off	7. HP OfficeJet Printer – 33.34 percent off
3. Abbyson Giorgio Sofa Set – 50 percent off	8. Samsung Refrigerator – 33.34 percent off
4. Nikon D3500 DSLR Camera - 41.22 percent off	9. NordicTrack Elite Elliptical – 59.38 percent off
5. Women's Laguna Bike – 33.33 percent off	10. Samsung 65" Smart TV – 31.25 percent off

See WalletHub's report the “Best Labor Day Deals & Sales” for more information. The report has a listing of the amount of discounts dozens of stores are offering on clothing, appliances, computers and phones, electronics, packaged goods, furniture, toys, and other categories.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Attorneys general and telecommunications companies join to stop robocalls

Fifty-one attorneys general announced an agreement Thursday with 12 telecommunications providers on a set of principles intended to limit and prevent robocalls. The providers have agreed to incorporate these principles into their business practices.

This agreement comes from the work of a group of attorneys general who in 2018 formed the Robocall Technologies Working Group. The group collaborated with telecommunication providers to make it more difficult for scammers to use robocall technologies to intrude on and defraud consumers.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have joined this agreement with the following telecommunication companies: AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream.

iBuying costs sellers more, study shows

What is iBuying? iBuyers purchase homes from sellers at a lower than market price based on proprietary algorithms, pay the seller almost immediately, make any needed improvements, then re-sell the homes.

The total cost of using iBuying for home sellers is 13-15 percent of a home’s sale price, according to research by Collateral Analytics.

That compares to a 5-7 percent commission, plus the costs of any needed home repairs or preparation, for a seller working with a traditional real estate agent. In addition, iBuying sellers are freed from the uncertainty of selling their home.

CFPB settles its predatory lending lawsuit against ITT Educational Services

Photo: Dwight Burdette

ITT Educational Services Inc. has agreed to a settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB to resolve the agency’s lawsuit, which alleges that ITT engaged in predatory lending practices in its private loan program.

The CFPB’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in 2014, alleges that ITT helped to create private loan programs for students at ITT Technical Institute, the school run by ITT until it filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2016. The CFPB alleges that ITT improperly induced students to take out those loans to pay the tuition amounts not covered by loans or other tuition assistance from the federal government. The agency’s complaint also alleges that ITT knew that the student borrowers didn’t understand the terms and conditions of the loans and couldn’t afford them, resulting in high default rates.

Are you ready to go back to cable?

It's August, so I guess my Comcast TV contract has run out. How do I know? I got a bill for $185.65 instead of the usual $145.25.

When I first signed up for Comcast in 2008, I chose to get the $99 bundle: $33 for television, $33 for internet, and $33 for a landline phone. Every year or two since then when my contract runs out, I've had to beg, plead, and yell to get Comcast to offer me the $99 bundle again. I have to ask for the supervisor and/or call back another day to try. It's so frustrating. The price for the services should be the price for the services. Having hidden prices is unfair to all customers.

I haven't "cut the cable" because I don't watch much TV. In addition, there isn't a company in my area that's going to be any better than Comcast for providing internet services.

Facebook to pay $5 billion for privacy lapses, but consumer groups say changes the company agreed to won’t solve its privacy problems

Facebook will pay a record-breaking $5 billion penalty, and submit to new restrictions and a modified corporate structure that will hold the company accountable for the decisions it makes about its users’ privacy, to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.

The settlement requires Facebook to conduct a massive overhaul of its consumer privacy practices. The settlement also makes major changes to Facebook’s operations, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg no longer has sole control over privacy.

“Despite repeated promises to its billions of users worldwide that they could control how their personal information is shared, Facebook undermined consumers’ choices,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “The magnitude of the $5 billion penalty and sweeping conduct relief are unprecedented in the history of the FTC. The relief is designed not only to punish future violations but, more importantly, to change Facebook’s entire privacy culture to decrease the likelihood of continued violations.”

Equifax to pay up to $700 million for 2017 data breach

Equifax has agreed to pay $575 million, and possibly up to $700 million, as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 states and territories. The settlement alleges that the credit reporting company’s failure to take steps to secure its network led to a data breach in 2017 that affected about 147 million people.

In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that the Equifax data breach exposed millions of names and dates of birth, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and other personal information that could lead to identity theft and fraud.

As part of the proposed settlement, Equifax will pay $300 million to a fund that will provide affected consumers with credit monitoring services. The fund will also compensate consumers who bought credit or identity monitoring services from Equifax and paid other money as a result of the 2017 data breach. Equifax will add up to $125 million to the fund if the $300 million isn’t enough to compensate consumers for their losses.

Cancer warning on alcohol requested by consumer, health groups

The Consumer Federation of America joined other consumer and public health groups Wednesday in calling for a warning statement on alcoholic beverages to increase consumer awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer. The groups asked the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to undertake a process to amend the health warning statement required to appear on all alcoholic beverage labels.

The letter to TTB includes signatures from the American Institute for Cancer Research, the American Public Health Association, Breast Cancer Action, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance.

All alcoholic beverage labels now are required to include a warning statement on motor vehicle operation and drinking while pregnant. The law requiring that statement, passed in 1988, directs TTB to consult with the surgeon general and “promptly report” to Congress if “available scientific information” justifies a change in the statement. The groups said the TTB needs to fulfill that reporting duty.

Sloppy practices by student loan servicers create obstacles to repayment, consumer group says

U.S. Department of Education data show that nearly a quarter of the more than 43 million federal student loan borrowers are in trouble with their loan payments. These borrowers need high-quality, timely assistance, but, unfortunately, the student loan servicing industry has long been rife with misconduct, said Joanna K. Darcus, attorney for the National Consumer Law Center.

The consequences of servicers’ misconduct are significant and, at times, catastrophic for borrowers’ financial lives, Darcus said. Sloppy practices by servicers created obstacles to repayment, raised the costs of debt, caused distress, and ultimately contributed to driving struggling borrowers to default, according to an April 2017 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report based on student loan borrower complaints.

Specifically, many eligible borrowers aren’t enrolled in income-driven repayment or IDR plans despite clear benefits to the financial health of borrowers and their families. Instead, servicers steer many borrowers into forbearances and deferments, which are profitable for the servicer and costly to the borrower.