Some quick links to start your Wednesday. Retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister settled a Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuit for $10 million, after sending text messages to 3.7 million customers without receiving prior expressed consent … Volkswagen is offering hefty incentives to current customers to keep them from defecting in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal … I had a great conversation yesterday about the issue of privacy, and my argument is that less of it is the price you pay for being able to play video games, text, and post Facebook status updates from the bathroom … Some cool graphics about where donations to the presidential candidates are coming from … Microsoft unveils its first-ever laptop … The New York Attorney General is investigating DraftKings and FanDuel … Childcare now costs more than rent … They’re going to make a movie about this: Prison debate team beats team from Harvard … 12 things every man should keep at his desk … Love this headline: Why Big Companies Are Screwing You For No Apparent Reason … Bringing coloring books to life.
NEWS
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class-action lawsuit in Washington state yesterday, claiming that the practice of putting defendants who do not pay their court-assessed fines in jail is unconstitutional. The ACLU called the practice a “modern-day debtor’s prison” in announcing the suit. Defendants who do not pay their fines can be jailed and credited $50 per day or join a work crew and receive a $70 credit.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is set to issue a proposed rule that would limit the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in financial contracts, which would give consumers more opportunity to file lawsuits against lenders and other financial services organizations.
- Collection agency ConServe has opened an office in Henrietta, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, and expects to hire 100 people for the new location.
- Debt collectors play a vital role in alerting consumers to the possibility that their identities have been stolen, according to a newly released report. Debt collectors are the seventh most likely source to notify consumers of a possible identity theft, according to the research.
Candidates for the Nobel Prize in Physics
The two coolest robots at Tesla’s factory
New car technology confuses drivers
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