News
Tell Amazon: Stop price gouging during the COVID-19 crisis
As the novel coronavirus spreads, shoppers have been reporting through-the-roof prices on Amazon for supplies they need to stay safe and healthy. One vendor was selling a four-pack of Purell hand sanitizer for $159; another, a two-pack of Lysol wipes for $70.
These price spikes are nothing short of unfair, opportunistic price gouging that’s putting people at risk.
We need to make sure people aren’t getting ripped off while shopping for supplies they need in a crisis. Tell Amazon: Put rules in place that prevent price gouging during emergencies like this one.
In many states, this kind of price gouging -- in which sellers use emergencies like hurricanes or floods to massively inflate prices -- is against the law, and for good reason: It takes advantage of people in precarious situations.
After consumer advocates called out Amazon for price spikes during the ongoing COVID-19 emergency, the retailer retroactively deleted many of the offending items. Many were sold by third-party retailers, but some were sold by Amazon itself.
But these spikes shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and as the novel coronavirus continues to spread, demand will continue to be high. Amazon can’t just come in and tackle price gougers after the fact; it needs to implement controls that prevent price gouging in the first place.
Send Amazon a message telling it to stop unfair price gouging during emergencies like this one.
The fairest way for Amazon to make sure people don’t get taken advantage of? Prevent anyone on the platform from raising prices for products significantly above their 90-day averages during emergencies.
If we’re going to combat this disease, people need to be able to get the supplies they need to stay safe and healthy. Amazon is the world’s biggest marketplace, and it needs to step up for its shoppers.
Take action.
We can stop identity theft -- by making credit report freezes the default option
Imagine this scenario: You hear about a big data breach at a major credit bureau on the news. Millions of people have had their financial data compromised.
The next thing you know, someone is opening lines of credit in your name and you’re on the hook for a big purchase you didn’t make. You’ve just had your identity stolen.
If your credit reports had been frozen, the identity thief wouldn’t have been able to do much with your information. So doesn’t it make sense that all Americans’ credit reports be frozen as the default setting, until they choose to unfreeze them for a legitimate transaction?
The answer is yes -- credit report freezes stop identity thieves in their tracks. Tell your senators to support legislation to prevent identity thieves from accessing your credit.
The story above wasn’t hypothetical. When Capital One was hacked last year, and Equifax in 2017, untold amounts of sensitive information were exposed to identity thieves. Breaches like these will happen again, and having credit reports frozen by default is the best way to ensure they don’t put your identity at risk.
Here's how it works: When you (or an identity thief posing as you) apply for a new line of credit, such as a new credit card or loan, the lender checks your credit reports. If your credit reports are frozen, the lender can’t access them, and won’t issue you (or an identity thief) a new line of credit.
You can still use your existing credit cards. Your credit score won't be affected. You'll just be safer from identity thieves. And you can unfreeze your credit reports to legitimately apply for new line of credit at any time -- for just a few days, or a few weeks, or even forever.
We’ve already seen some progress. After the public called for it, Congress passed a law to make opt-in credit report freezes free for everyone.
Now, we need to take it a step further. We need to make credit report freezes the default setting from the start, so you can choose when you want to make your own credit reports accessible.
There’s a bill in the Senate that would do just that. Add your name: Tell your senators to support the Consumer Credit Control Act to freeze your credit reports by default.
Our credit reporting system is backward, with too much control over our credit reports resting in the hands of credit bureaus that don't take adequate precautions to protect it. It's time to reverse that. Our credit reports should only be accessible if, and when, we give our consent.
Tell your senators that your credit reports should be frozen until you need them.
Tell your governor: We should be able to fix the stuff we own
Americans throw away 416,000 cell phones every day.
That’s staggering -- and more than a little depressing. Are we really that wasteful by nature? Why not just get your phone fixed when it breaks, so you don’t have to shell out another $900 for a new one?
As it turns out, making these repairs isn’t that simple. Many companies have refused to make parts, manuals or repair software available to independent fixers -- forcing many users whose devices just need minor repairs to trash them and spend hundreds on new ones.
States have an opportunity to pass “right to repair” laws that would put a stop to this. Tell your governor: Support legislation requiring manufacturers to give us fair access to components we need to repair our stuff.
Phones shouldn’t be this disposable. An iPhone 6 requires 295 pounds of water and mineral ore to manufacture. Those components come together to create something incredible: a supercomputer in your pocket, capable of accessing the world’s information in seconds.
When you have to replace these wonder-devices because of a faulty battery or a bad component -- something you or a repair shop could fix in minutes with the right tools and know-how -- it hits you in the pocketbook and adds to our country’s waste problem.
That's why we're calling on state leaders to support legislation that will make it easier for people to repair their devices so that we spend less and waste less.
Tell your governor: Nothing that requires 295 pounds of resources is disposable. Support our right to fair repair.
The movement for repair already has some momentum. In state legislatures across the country, lawmakers are debating bills that will make personal and third-party repairs more accessible for consumers.
But those bills are meeting stiff resistance from well-funded lobbyists representing some of the country's biggest tech giants. Some lawmakers agree, saying that in "the near future, cell phones are throwaways."
We're not asking for trade secrets. We just want to extend the lives of our devices.
Your governor should support our right to fair repair by passing legislation requiring manufacturers to sell the components we need to repair our stuff.
Tell your governor: Save net neutrality
Last year brought a blow to internet freedom -- but also a way forward for those of us looking to protect it.
The bad news: An appeals court upheld the Trump administration’s repeal of net neutrality protections. Without these protections, big phone and cable companies could block or slow down whatever content they choose -- or create unfair internet "fast lanes" to favor certain sites and content over others.
The good news? The court also said that states and local governments can write their own, stronger rules.
This ruling could have consequences for a free and open internet, where all ideas, content and users have a chance to thrive. But right now, passing strong state laws could be our best chance to protect the net. Tell your governor: Pass net neutrality legislation now.
The internet belongs to everyone and every idea. That's what net neutrality protects. Without it, the internet will be under the control of powerful telephone and cable company gatekeepers. They could throttle or even block some content to let their favored content speed along. This would harm consumers and citizens, small businesses, innovators, and even our culture of freedom and democracy.
When the Trump administration decided to give telecommunications companies the ability to block or slow down internet access for broadband customers, California responded in 2018 by passing a law to block that from happening.
Though the court’s decision okayed the administration’s repeal of net neutrality at the federal level, it also opened the door for more states to take action of their own, and for California to begin enforcing its law.
To keep the internet free and open, we need to take action at all levels. Internet service providers shouldn't be able to pick winners and losers online, or give their own services an unfair advantage over their competitors. But that's exactly what will happen without net neutrality protections.
Call on your governor to protect net neutrality in your state.
We need to make net neutrality the law of the land by passing the Save the Internet Act in the U.S. Senate. But in the meantime, to keep the internet fair, we need to call on states to follow in California's footsteps and pass their own net neutrality protections.
Stand up for a free and open internet today.
Tell the FTC: Investigate phone apps that put our privacy at risk
Maybe you've used FaceApp at some point in the past year -- or maybe you've seen your friends, kids or family members playing around with it. It's the one with filters that show how you might look 10 years older.
But FaceApp hasn't been above board about what it's doing with your photos. Users thought the photos they selected to "age" stayed on their phones. But in reality, the photos were uploaded to external servers -- and the app's 4,300 word-long user agreement had a sneaky clause that gave it a "perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide [and] fully-paid" license over the photos.
That's deceptive, plain and simple. Millions of people used this app, but surely fewer would have done so if they knew were handing over their data and putting it at risk.
It's only fair for us to know what we're signing up for. Tell the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Investigate the privacy risks of FaceApp and apps like it.
Unfortunately, FaceApp is just a symptom of a much larger problem. In a world in which access to users' data is so valuable to companies, privacy violations have become routine.
User license agreements (like FaceApp's) are often tens or hundreds of pages of dense legal language. The average user won't or simply can't take the time to read and understand them.
When an agreement is dense to the point that it's practically unreadable, clicking "I agree" simply isn't the same as giving informed consent. If we're being asked to hand over our data, that ask should be up-front and easy to understand.
It's possible that FaceApp isn't doing anything with your data besides exactly what it claims: Manipulating your photographs and sending them back to you. But its deceptive license agreement -- like similar deceptive agreements in many apps -- can still pose a risk to our data security.
We deserve to know whether the apps we download on our phones are safe to use. Ask the FTC to investigate FaceApp and other applications that misuse our data.
Let's make sure tech companies play by the rules and stay honest with their customers.
Don't let Wells Fargo get away with this
If your bank told you it was closing your account, you’d expect it to do exactly that. But as it turns out, that’s not always the case for customers of Wells Fargo.
Instead of closing bank accounts on the preset final closing dates, Wells Fargo is accused of keeping accounts with a balance open for two more months -- without notifying the customer -- and racking up overdraft fees.
We should be able to bank without fear of being ripped off. Tell the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to open an investigation into Wells Fargo today.
The mission of the Consumer Bureau is to make sure financial service providers play by the rules -- and this isn’t the first time Wells Fargo has run afoul of it.
Since 2008, Wells Fargo has paid more than $15 billion in settlements to resolve investigations into its misdeeds -- including opening fake accounts in customers’ names to hit sales quotas and forcing borrowers to buy unnecessary auto insurance.
Now, we need the Consumer Bureau to keep Wells Fargo in check once again. Add your name today.
Employees and customers of Wells Fargo reported that the bank continued to honor transactions like automatic payments -- and even fraudulent charges -- long after the accounts were supposed to be closed. And each time another payment was made from an overdrawn account, Wells Fargo tacked on a fee.
The affected customers often only found out after their accounts were sent to collections, or when they were unable to open a new account at a different bank due to outstanding overdraft fees. Some have filed complaints with the Consumer Bureau, but the agency has yet to act.5
The Consumer Bureau protected customers from Wells Fargo’s wrongdoing before, and now we need the bureau to do so again. Tell the Consumer Bureau to investigate Wells Fargo and hold the bank accountable today.
States could recover $17 billion by closing corporate tax loopholes
Corporations should pay their fair share in taxes.
But every year, many large businesses are using complicated schemes to shift money earned in the U.S. to offshore tax havens to reduce how much they owe by billions of dollars.
The result? These large corporations aren’t paying their fair share, avoiding taxes their smaller competitors have to pay.
But states don’t have to wait on Washington to fix these problems. By closing loopholes at the state level, states can even the playing field and also recover billions of dollars for critical services.
Your state can act right now. Call on your governor to close tax loopholes and make sure everyone pays their fair share and plays by the same rules.
From schools to paved roads and courts to public health, every person and every corporation in America benefits from government services. When it comes to paying the tab, we need to ensure that the rules are applied evenly and fairly.
But even though all of America’s businesses use these government services, not all are playing by the same rules. Instead, these corporations are avoiding taxes by moving their profits offshore -- leaving the rest of us, including small businesses, to pick up the tab in the form of higher taxes, more debt or cuts to public spending.
The good news? States can even the playing field by implementing what’s called a “Combined Reporting” system -- requiring that companies report their total domestic profits, including all their subsidiaries so that the state can calculate how much of that profit is taxable. If every state changed the way it required corporations to report on their earnings, it would close state tax loopholes and could reclaim $17 billion across the country.
And, if states take action now, not only will they make important progress toward closing corporate tax loopholes, but they will set the stage for larger, national action.
Our laws should protect us, not the data dealers
In 2019, our lives are attached to the internet -- from banking to shopping and even childcare and dog-walking. For most of us, sharing our personal data is the price we pay for being online.
It’s only fair that the companies that profit from our data should protect it. But too often, they don’t.
In 2018, at least 4.5 billion records were compromised in the first half of the year alone in the world. That’s about 291 breaches per second, on average. And the majority of those incidences occurred in North America.1
That’s why we’re calling on legislators to protect our data, not the data dealers.
Call on your legislators to protect our data now.
Companies need to do more to protect our data from those looking to steal our private information, from social security numbers to driver’s license numbers to bank account numbers and more.
That’s why we’re calling on legislators to require companies to implement regular cybersecurity inspections, and levy fines against companies that experience future breaches -- holding them accountable to protect our data. Because our laws should protect our data, not the companies that profit from it.
Another major data breach could happen any day -- that’s why we need to pass legislation to protect our data right now. Add your name today.
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1. Rob Marvin, "Data Breaches Compromised 4.5 Billion Records In First Half of 2018," PC Magazine, October 9, 2018
$1,200 for a repair that could be free
You might be overcharged for repairs to your electronics.
An undercover reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recently took a laptop to the Apple store in Toronto and was told the repairs would be at least $1,200.1
But it took an independent technician less than two minutes to repair the laptop -- and for such a simple repair, the tech says he usually doesn’t charge anything.
This is exactly why we need repair options. And Right to Repair reforms will give small businesses and independent techs the information they need and the right to fix our things.
It’s only fair to have the right to repair our stuff. $1,200 versus free illustrates the difference.
Urge your governor to support reforms to ensure our right to fair repair now.
Independent repair is getting more and more difficult as manufacturers block access to parts and manuals.
We should be able to take our computers, phones and other devices anywhere we want, and we should be able to get a fair price for the actual cost of the repair.
Momentum is building for Right to Repair legislation. Will you join in? Send a message to your governor now.
In a testimony earlier this year in Olympia, Washington, an independent repair shop owner, Ryan Inglehart, used an example from his own work. A local school district had its iMac computers assessed by Apple and was told that the computers would cost more than $1,000 each to fix. The school chose to replace the computers, which cost about $2,000 apiece. But when Mr. Inglehart inspected the computers, he discovered the problem was an internal battery that had gone dead -- a part that would have cost $1.75 to replace.2
We should all be able to repair the stuff we own at a place that offers us a fair price -- including small businesses and independent repair shops. Take action to stand up for right to repair reforms now.
1. “Apple under fire for allegations of controversial business practices,” CBC News: The National via YouTube, October 8, 2018.
2. Bill Inglehart, “House Technology & Economic Development Committee,” January 9, 2018.
The 2008 financial crisis was a decade ago… what's next?
Ten years ago, Lehman Brothers -- a global financial services firm -- collapsed, helping spark the 2008 financial crisis.
"It was the moment when the financial crisis fully burst upon us, when panic seized the markets," Phil Angelides, former chair of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission told CNN.
The demise of the Lehman Brothers and the following Great Recession were triggered in part by financial trickery that put the big banks first and consumers last -- and why we created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as our watchdog on Wall Street.
Since the Consumer Bureau was created in 2011, it has taken more than 180 legal actions against payday lenders, student loan servicers, Wells Fargo and more; it has processed more than 1 million consumer complaints; and it has returned $12 billion to more than 26 million Americans wronged by financial companies.
That’s why it’s important to remember this anniversary: We need to remember why we need a watchdog on Wall Street to make sure that banks and other financial institutions play by the rules -- and to hold them accountable when they don’t.
Add your name to speak up for our watchdog keeping Wall Street in check today.
For us, and others like us, the Lehman Brothers collapse isn’t really when we felt the financial crisis. But we sure felt it later, like most Americans.
We cannot afford another financial crisis. That’s why we're committed to defending the Consumer Bureau and calling on its current leadership to make sure it lives up to its mission.