The FTC Fined Vizio $2.2 Million in 2017 for Tracking 11 Million Smart TVs Without Consent. The Remedy Was a Consent Screen, and a Peer-Reviewed Study Later Found LG Sets Fingerprinting Whatever Is on Screen Every Fifteen Seconds.
In February 2017, Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General to settle charges that it had collected viewing data from roughly 11 million televisions without telling anyone. The software had been running since February 2014. It recorded what was
Panera Launched an Unlimited Self-Serve Drinks Subscription in 2022 Alongside a Lemonade With Up to 390 Milligrams of Caffeine. The Only Limit at the Fountain Was One Cup Every Two Hours.
On 19 April 2022, Panera Bread launched Unlimited Sip Club, which it billed as the first nationwide unlimited subscription for self-serve beverages. For $10.99 a month, members could take one self-serve drink every two hours during café hours, refills included. The menu covered coffee, tea, fountain soda,
The Man Who Wrote the Password Rules Said in 2017 That He Regretted Them. His Own Guideline Had Predicted in 2004 That Everyone Would Capitalize the First Letter and Put the Symbol at the End.
In June 2004 the National Institute of Standards and Technology published Special Publication 800-63, the Electronic Authentication Guideline, by William Burr, Donna Dodson and Timothy Polk. It was written for US federal agencies. Its Appendix A set out a method for estimating how strong a password was, and it
Ofo Put Millions of Yellow Bicycles on China's Streets for Anyone to Ride and Took a Small Deposit to Make Sure They Came Back. At Last Count, More Than Fifteen Million Riders Were Still Waiting for the Deposit.
Ofo was founded in 2014 by Dai Wei, a Peking University graduate, and began on that university's campus. The idea was simple enough to fit on a sticker. A yellow bicycle stood on the pavement, unattended. A rider paid through an app, cycled wherever they were going, and
Washington Let Lenders Approve $793 Billion in Pandemic Payroll Loans on the Borrower's Word. A Houston Man Reported 50 Employees and $375,000 in Monthly Payroll for a Company With No Staff, and Bought a Lamborghini.
The Paycheck Protection Program opened in April 2020, weeks after the CARES Act created it. Its purpose was to keep small businesses paying their employees through the first lockdowns, and its governing principle was speed. The loans were fully guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, made through private lenders, and
Airbnb Banned Parties Worldwide After a 2019 Halloween Shooting at a House Booked for a Family Reunion. By 2024 Its Software Was Deterring About 38,000 People in the United States From Renting a Whole House Over Halloween Weekend.
In late October 2019, a woman booked a large house in Orinda, California, through Airbnb. She told the owner she lived in Lafayette, that members of her family had asthma and needed to get away from the smoke of the Kincade Fire, and that she wanted to host a family
A Network of University Scientists Set Out to Be "the Voice of Science" on Obesity and Said Diet Was Getting Too Much of the Blame. Its Website Was Registered to Coca-Cola's Headquarters in Atlanta.
In 2015 a nonprofit called the Global Energy Balance Network promised, on its website, to be "the voice of science" in discussions about healthy lifestyles. Its leaders were well credentialed. James O. Hill was a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Steven N. Blair was
Meta Fired About Two Dozen Los Angeles Employees in October 2024 for Misusing $25 Meal Credits. One of Them Reportedly Earned $400,000 a Year and Had Spent the Credits on Toothpaste and Tea.
At its large campuses Meta feeds its staff for free, in cafeterias, three times a day. Its smaller offices have no cafeterias, so the company gave employees there the next best thing: a daily allowance on food delivery apps such as Grubhub and Uber Eats. Twenty dollars for breakfast, twenty-
Philips Recalled 15 Million Breathing Machines in 2021 Because Their Sound-Dampening Foam Could Crumble Into the Air Patients Inhaled. An FDA Inspection Found the Company Had Been Aware of Degrading Foam Since 2015.
On 14 June 2021, Philips Respironics announced a recall of CPAP machines, BiPAP machines and ventilators, around 15 million devices worldwide. Most were sleep apnea machines, which blow air into the airway of a sleeping person so that it stays open through the night. The ventilators were for people who
REI Let Customers Return Anything, at Any Time, for 75 Years. Among the Things That Came Back Was a Snowsuit Bought in 1970 to Climb Mount Rainier.
Recreational Equipment Inc. was founded in 1938 and is organised as a cooperative. From the start it offered a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, and the guarantee had no expiry date. If a piece of gear failed to satisfy, it could be brought back to the store, and the store took
Kyoto's Gion District Asked Tourists Not to Photograph Geiko in Its Private Alleys. After a Maiko's Kimono Was Torn and a Cigarette Butt Went Down Another's Collar, the Alleys Closed to Everyone.
Gion is the district of Kyoto where geiko — the local word for geisha — and their apprentices, maiko, work in teahouses. Getting between appointments means walking outside in full costume, along a network of alleys, some of which are one to two metres wide. Several of them are not public roads.
Spotify Sold a $90 Dashboard Player, Discontinued It Five Months Later, and Said It Would Keep Supporting the Ones People Owned. In December 2024 It Switched Every One of Them Off.
Spotify released Car Thing in February 2022. It was a small screen that mounted on a dashboard and controlled Spotify, aimed at drivers whose cars were too old to have an infotainment system. It cost about ninety dollars, and it required an active Spotify Premium subscription to do anything at
The FTC Wrote a Rule Requiring That Cancelling a Subscription Be as Easy as Starting One. A Federal Court Vacated It Six Days Before It Took Effect, Over a Missing Cost Analysis.
The Federal Trade Commission finalised its revised Negative Option Rule in October 2024. It was known almost immediately as the click-to-cancel rule, because its central requirement was that a subscription be as easy to leave as it was to join. If a customer could sign up in four