The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

How government regulations help consumers

Conservatives rail against government regulations, and the Trump administration is doing its best every day to cut government regulations that corporations hate.

However, government regulations help consumers. A report by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards lists 10 worker, health, safety, and transportation standards that could help consumers this summer.

“Summer is supposed to be when we take time off from work to spend with family and friends, enjoy picnics, barbeques and cookouts, lay out by the pool, head to the beach, take road trips across the country or fly to far-flung places,” the report says. “But what happens if you’ve been deprived of the wages needed to take time off or travel, if road trips, flights and tour boats are potentially dangerous, if it’s way too hot to work or play outside, and there’s a good chance the food and water may be hazardous to your health? Suddenly, summertime looks less like a dreamy vacation and more like a scorching hot nightmare.”

The regulations discussed in the report are:

Baby boomers and the art of self-care

Winter is drawing to a close, and spring is coming. It seems people are worn out from the cold weather and lack of sunshine, and maybe even suffering from SAD. So it’s a good time to think self-care . . . and maybe even self-preservation.

This week our baby boomer bloggers offer articles on self-care: using self-compassion, reframing for a different perspective, learning to say no for self-care, processing grief, and sleeping soundly long and often without guilt. Then, there’s information on self-preservation, too: placing a freeze on your credit reports.

Tom Sightings of Sightings Over Sixty reports on these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #586. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Top 14 consumer stories of 2018

All in all, it’s been another bad year for consumers. President Trump and his administration’s generate so much chaos that they get all the media attention. Meanwhile in the background, federal agencies are moving forward on the administration’s conservative regulatory priorities, which are harmful to consumers. One bright spot is the Democrats taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives. That will help curb President Trump's excesses.

Here are the top 14 consumer stories for 2018:

1. The Trump administration continues decimated consumer protections.

President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under Mulvaney's leadership, the bureau reversed prior actions and programs of the agency. It has delayed rules to protect consumers from payday lenders, dropped lawsuits, stripped enforcements of fair-lending protections, and reduced the number of fines issued.

Identity protection tips for the holidays

With high profile data breaches at Marriott and Quora and a new government report about Equifax’s breach, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund is offering tips for consumers to protect themselves as they use their credit and debit cards to travel and buy gifts this holiday season.

“Breached companies from Equifax to Marriott have failed to clearly explain the risks posed by their breaches and the steps consumers can take to protect themselves,” said Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for the fund, a group that helps consumers. “Depending on what information thieves steal in a data breach, consumers could be victims of many different types of identity theft and fraud.”

The U.S. PIRG Education Fund recommends that consumers take the following steps, whether their information was stolen in high profile breaches or not:

Charter Communication agrees to record settlement for fraud in its internet services

Charter Communications and Spectrum Management Holding Co. have agreed to pay $174.2 million for defrauding internet subscribers. About $62.5 million of the funds will go to refunds for consumers, making it, regulators say, the largest-ever payout to consumers by an internet service provider, or ISP, in U.S. history.

Charter Communications merged with Time Warner in 2016, and has rebranded the internet, phone, and cable service as Spectrum Cable. Providing services to more than 26 million customers in 41 states, it’s the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, after Comcast.

The Tuesday agreement settles a fraud allegation that New York state’s largest ISP denied customers the reliable and fast internet service it had promised.

Five companies settle charges that they had mobile apps that didn’t keep sensitive user information secure

Five companies settled charges Friday that their mobile apps failed to keep sensitive user information secure when transmitted over the Internet.

The mobile apps of Western Union Financial Services, Priceline.com, Equifax Consumer Services, Spark Networks, and Credit Sesame had a security problem that could have allowed sensitive information entered by users – such as passwords, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers – to be stolen by eavesdroppers using simple techniques, tests by the New York Attorney General’s Office showed. Although each company told consumers that it used security measures to protect their information, the companies failed to determine whether their mobile apps had this problem.

The settlements with the New York agency require the companies to carry out comprehensive security programs to protect user information.

Tips to help consumers protect themselves on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

As millions of holiday shoppers head out for Black Friday shopping and take to their computers for Cyber Monday, it’s important to remember that just because items are supposedly on sale, all may not be what it seems.  

“When purchasing gifts for family and friends, we encourage consumers to use our tips to protect themselves against fraudsters and scams,” said New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood  

Underwood offers the following tips for consumers shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

Security problem in Samsung smart TVs corrected for 2018, with an update for older sets coming soon

Samsung has fixed a security flaw in its smart televisions in response to an investigation into privacy and security standards in these TVs.

Consumer Reports reported in February it had found that millions of TVs from Samsung, as well as those from brands that use the Roku TV platform, could be controlled by hackers using easy-to-find security flaws.

The problems were discovered during a Consumer Reports-led privacy and security evaluation of five smart TV brands.

Attack on Facebook exposes 50 million users’ accounts

Facebook announced Friday that earlier this week, "attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted ‘View As,’” a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts."

Ed Mierzwinski, the senior director of U.S. PIRG's consumer program, said:

Early reports of yet another big breach, this one where hackers apparently exploited Facebook vulnerabilities to expose the data of 50 million users, are very troubling. It's yet another warning that Congress must not enact any national data security or data breach legislation that weakens current state privacy laws, preempts the rights of states to pass new laws that protect their consumers better, or denies their attorneys general rights to investigate violations of or enforce those laws.

Copyright 2018, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Uber to pay a record $148 million settlement for not disclosing 2016 data breach

Uber settled charges Wednesday it concealed a 2016 data breach in violation of notification laws. The settlement, which was reached with 50 states and the District of Columbia, requires Uber to adopt data breach notification and data security practices and have its data security reviewed by an outside company. Uber also is required to pay a record $148 million penalty.

“New Yorkers deserve to know that their personal information will be protected – period,” said New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood. “This record settlement should send a clear message: we have zero tolerance for those who skirt the law and leave consumer and employee information vulnerable to exploitation.”

In November 2016, hackers based in the United States and Canada secretly informed security officials at Uber that they’d downloaded the personal information of 57 million riders and drivers, 25 million in the United States and 7.7 million drivers. The information stolen included names, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers; drivers’ license information on about 600,000 drivers nationwide was also stolen. After providing proof of the massive data breach, the hackers demanded “six figures” to delete the data and not disclose the breach. Uber paid the hackers $100,000 to conceal the breach.