Here’s a quick lesson in social networking privacy:
- Public means anyone can read what you are posting. Like your spouse, the police, your boss, etc. They don’t even have to be a member of the social network in question.
- Private means that only certain people can read what you are posting. You get to decide who these people are.
WeKnowWhatYou’reDoing.com is a collection of people who don’t seem to understand the difference. Under headings like Who’s taking drugs? and Who wants to get fired? it lists posts to popular social networks that should probably not have been made public.
It doesn’t take an economist to realize that when the rich pay less in taxes, everyone else is essentially giving their money to the rich.
Government redistributes wealth, through taxes, for the common good. If you don’t like that, go find an anarchist commune to join. Without taxes — and therefore wealth redistribution — there would be no infrastructure (roads, bridges, snow plowing, sewage), military, free education through grade 12, and many other services we take for granted. The idea is that, by redistributing wealth, society benefits as a whole.
But during the last decade or so, government has been redistributing wealth to those who don’t need it: the wealthy.
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Twitter account @NeedADebitCard collects pictures of debit and credit cards that people post to Twitter. Seriously? I’m guessing these people aren’t on top of their Facebook privacy settings, either, which makes them sitting ducks for identity thieves.
People, don’t be stupid. If you have to take pictures of your debit and credit cards, put them in the same place you keep your sex tapes.
[via BoingBoing]
It won’t work if you know it’s a placebo, of course. Would you be upset if you found out you paid $100 per pill for a placebo, even if it worked? Would you expect a refund once it worked?
Should doctors prescribe placebos?
[Thanks, Aaron!]
If your identity is stolen, most of the damage done is financial. Since most of us have financial accounts and information spread all over, it can take a long time to sort out all the fraudulent activity. It’s like picking staples out of a huge carpet. There is not much help available to victims of identity theft, either. You are mostly on your own when it comes to cleaning up the mess.
The FTC just made it a little bit easier, though, with a set of resources to help victims of identity theft figure out what to do. It’s Taking Charge: What to Do if Your Identity is Stolen PDF walks you through the process of discovering the identity theft, doing immediate damage control, placing a fraud alert on your account, freezing your credit, and so on.
(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/57280140/)
The Volunteer Lawyers Network receives lots of calls from Minnesota consumers who have debt collection problems. It has helped many people dealing with debt collection, but it cannot represent consumers with FDCPA claims because VLN is not able to represent plaintiffs. In order to get those consumers the help they need, VLN just released a tool to help consumers get a list of consumer lawyers who can help them.
If you think you have an FDCPA claim, you can use VLN’s FDCPA screening form to self-screen and get a list of consumer rights lawyers drawn from the NACA consumer lawyer directory) who may be able to help you.
Eustis, 59, has been under fire since a report last month by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson about debt collectors hounding patients for money in emergency rooms and other hospital wards. Eustis, who has been president of Fairview since 2007, was instrumental in hiring a consulting firm, Accretive Health, that Swanson blamed for the heavy-handed tactics.
“Fairview president to retire in wake of debt collection controversy“
by Guest on April 23, 2012
Guest post by Frank Pipitone.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have heard or read about the looming student loan economic crisis. The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) refers to this coming crisis as the student loan “debt bomb.” A brief look at the NACBA report and the startling statistics explains why they coined this explosive title.
Over 37 million Americans are currently saddled with student loan debt with the total amount owed in excess of 1 trillion dollars. While these numbers are frightening, some of the trends outlined in the report are more concerning:
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Wells Fargo got in major trouble for applying payments first to fees, then to the principal of a mortgage. And because it pissed off a New Orleans bankruptcy judge by fighting the case for five years while the homeowner’s lawyers worked without pay. (From Bloomberg Law)
