FTC issues new order shipping rules
Under new FTC rules which take effect December 8, Internet retailers must ship your merchandise within a “reasonable timeframe” or within 30 days if they can’t give you a date. If they can’t meet that target, they must get your permission for additional time or provide an immediate refund.
An Engadget article about the rule change suggests holiday shoppers can breathe a bit easier with the rule change and mentions the “scores of gift givers whose packages arrived late last year.” With the new vendor requirements taking effect in early December and merchants still having 30 days to fulfill your order, the best strategy seems to be not waiting until the last minute to complete your shopping. If you did order early and shipment has been delayed, you may want to come up with a backup plan, like trying to get the item elsewhere and canceling the first order.
Data breaches span multiple large corporations
Forbes reports that multiple companies have recently disclosed significant hacking of personal data, including Gmail and JP Morgan Chase.
Google doesn’t seem terribly concerned about the disclosure of millions of Gmail passwords. Even if the passwords are old, many people keep using the same Google password for years and re-use the same passwords across multiple Web sites, against the advice of security experts.
Among the other data leaks:
- Personal information from more than 31,000 patients of the Central Utah Clinic may have been accessed by hackers, dating back to 2010.
- Little is known about the JP Morgan Chase breach, though cyber thieves may have accessed account information from up to 90 bank servers over a span of two months.
- Personal data from over 4000 people may have been accessed in a malware attack at George Mason University.
- Tampa General Hospital notified nearly 700 patients that a former employee accessed their personal and medical information, including Social Security numbers, names, addresses, diagnoses and dates of birth.
- Online retailer Yandy.com experienced a cyber attack that may have exposed customer credit card payment data.
California restaurant encourages one-star Yelp reviews
In a defiant move against the fickle world of online reviews, a restaurant in California has begun encouraging customers to leave poor reviews on Yelp.
Yelp has denied that it tweaks reviews based on whether a business advertises on Yelp, though a court ruling said they legally could do so. A co-owner of the restaurant, Botto Bistro, feels that advertising with Yelp made a difference in which reviews the site displayed, and decided to fight back with the one-star campaign in hopes of getting removed from the site. The Italian restaurant’s mocking of Yelp hasn’t gotten it booted from the site, but it has generated nationwide attention with an article in USAToday.
According to the USAToday article, some customers have really jumped on board, such as one who posted, “”I have been here at least 20 times and it is still terrible.”