consumer rights
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Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia
Sony Europe broke the rules outlined by the Australian Consumer Law, and now must pay a $2.4 million fine.
French court rules Steam games must be able to be resold
In a court decision that could fundamentally change how Steam operates, European Union consumers have won the right to resell their Steam titles through Valve's digital marketplace. French website Next Inpact reports the Paris Court of First Instance ruled on Tuesday that European Union law allows Steam users to resell their digital games, just like they can any physical product.
Facebook revealing the personal data it collects, won't spare your drunk-poking blushes
Facebook's massively expanding its Download Your Information service into an all-encompassing archive of the data Mr. Zuckerberg collects about your daily dose of people-stalking. DYL was introduced in 2010 and allowed you to pull down all the photos, posts, messages, friend lists and chat conversations in the archives -- but now will also offer stored IP addresses, previous names you've used, friend requests you've made, with further categories due in the future. It'll have to sate the concerns of privacy organizations worldwide, since it's rumored to collect 84 different categories of information about you (85 if you count all those Instagram photos it just bought). It'll be gradually rolled out to all 845 million users in the coming weeks and is available from your general account settings.
Facebook loses friends in Germany over privacy breaches
Before you've even sipped your morning brew, a regional German court has delivered yet another stern judgement affecting a multinational organization. This time it's Facebook back in the dock over the Friend Finder feature, which uploads a user's contact list to Zuckerberg's bunker without proper warning. Another offense involves the ownership of data -- any original photo or music track uploaded to Facebook supposedly belongs to the company and can be used however it likes, which has now been deemed to breach data protection laws. Someone ought to add this to the Harvard Student Handbook.
FTC sues to keep your phone records safe
Were you aware that your phone records are available to just about anyone willing to fork over $100 beans in exchange for a month’s worth of activity? Yeah, in what has become a booming Internet business aimed primary at Private Dicks, your phone records (including lists of incoming and outgoing calls) are being made available via dozens of web-based brokers who openly advertise their ability to obtain your data with the help of company insiders or via a little deception -- in violation of law. See, the 1996 Telecommunication Act which deregulated the phone and media industries, also states that consumers’ phone records are private property and can only be publicly disclosed with our approval. As such, the FTC has now taken action and like Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon before them, are going after these bastages in a variety of sting operations and costly litigation meant to oust and ultimately shut ‘em down. The five sites targetted by the FTC in their lawsuit include 77 Investigations, Accusearch, Check Em Out, Information Search, and Integrity Security & Investigations Services with the latter accused of selling personal financial info and credit card deets to boot. Sure, these US-based companies will just reopen off-shore but still, we’ve got your back on this one FTC.
