An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: A newly released document shows the U.S. Secret Service went through a controversial social media surveillance company to purchase the location information on American’s movements, no warrant necessary. Babel Street is a shadowy organization that offers a product called Locate X that is reportedly used to gather anonymized location data from a host…
Tag: fees
As Colleges Move Classes Online, Families Rebel Against the Cost
“A rebellion against the high cost of a bachelor’s degree, already brewing around the nation before the coronavirus, has gathered fresh momentum as campuses have strained to operate in the pandemic,” reports the New York Times. “Who wants to pay $25,000 a year for glorified Skype?” one incoming freshman tells them: Incensed at paying face-to-face prices for education that is increasingly…
Cities Lose Lawsuit Against FCC’s 5G Rules
A federal appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s rules that limit municipalities’ ability to negotiate with telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon that are seeking to deploy thousands of 5G antennas on city streets and neighborhoods. From a report: The ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a blow to dozens of cities that sued the agency,…
Settlement for Google+ Breach Offers Class Members Up to $12 Each
“Anyone in the United States who held a Google Plus account between January 1, 2015 and April 2, 2019, and believes they were impacted by a security flaw that Google disclosed in 2018 can now register for a payout from a class action settlement…” reports the Verge. “Each class action member is eligible for a payout of up to $12 after…
Government’s PACER Fees Are Too High, Federal Circuit Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg Law: The U.S. government charges too much for access to an electronic database of federal court records, the Federal Circuit ruled in a decision curbing a revenue stream the court system uses to help fund other programs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision that the…
‘Wakaresaseya’: Private Agents Hired To End Relationships
Christine Ro from the BBC writes about the private agents in Japan, called “wakaresaseya,” that you can hire to seduce your spouse or their partner. From the report: The industry is still serving a niche market. One survey showed around 270 wakaresaseya agencies advertising online. Many are attached to private-detective firms, similar to private investigators in other countries (who can also…
Google Threatens to Remove All Danish Music From YouTube
YouTube is “embroiled in a very public spat with songwriters and music publishers in Denmark,” according to one music-industry news site. They cite Koda, the group that collects royalties and licensing fees for musicians, as saying that YouTube is now threatening to remove all music written by Danish songwriters: The cause of this threat is a disagreement between the two parties…
When a Customer Gets Refunded For a Paid App, Apple Doesn’t Refund the 30% Cut They Took From The Developer
When a customer gets refunded for an app they purchased, Apple doesn’t refund the 30% cut they took from the developer, says developer Simeon Saens of Two Lives Left. While [online] payment processors generally don’t refund fees on refunded payments, “the App Store doesn’t position itself as a payments processor the way Stripe does, so it sounds really weird that they…
Decimal Point Error Causes Etsy To Massively Overcharge For Shipping Labels
A decimal point error at e-commerce site Etsy briefly caused the company to overcharge for shipping labels by thousands of dollars. PCMag reports: Etsy sellers took to social media on Monday to notify the company about the problem. Apparently, the e-commerce site’s accounting system failed to notice the decimal point when charging for the total cost for shipping labels. As a…
Portland Approves 10% Cap On Fees That Food Delivery Apps Can Charge Restuarants
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Oregon Live: The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to make it illegal for third-party food delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub to collect more than 10% in commission fees from city restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic. Portland joins other cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, that have instituted similar caps in recent…