| Volume 130 Number 2 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you do your homework you might be able to find some good deals online. That said, be careful of suspicious pop-up ads and make sure your security software is up to date. This article discusses some of the deals you can expect online, as well as steps you can take to protect yourself online. Click here for more.
FCC Warns Verizon, AT&T of Harm to Consumers from Zero-Rating Data Plans
Federal regulators said Verizon and AT&T may be violating net neutrality rules by favoring their own streaming video services. Verizon allows its mobile customers to watch as much video as they’d like from its Go90 and NFL football apps without counting against their monthly data cap. As does AT&T for its DirecTV satellite customers using an accompanying app. The FCC said both carriers are hurting competition with the data exclusion strategies, also known as zero rating. Click here for more.
Your Money
With more Cyber Monday deliveries this year for the Holiday season than ever before, it is important to take steps to guard your packages. To prevent thieves from taking your packages from your porch, mail packages to a FedEx store or Amazon locker instead. You can also buy gadgets to record anyone who comes to your front door or that activates an alarm when packages are removed from your porch. Watch the video linked below for more tips. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
A web-page may be a single document for purposes of employment credit checks under the FCRA. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act an employer may procure a consumer report for employment purposes, only if a clear and conspicuous disclosure has been made in writing to the consumer in a document that consists solely of the disclosure. Plaintiff sued Defendant under the FCRA because Defendant "required her to fill out and sign [an online] Document entitled `Employment Application,'" which included an authorization to obtain her credit and background reports. Plaintiff claimed that the webpage application was extraneous and did not solely include the disclosure on one webpage. The California District Court held that the plain language of the Act requires a separate and distinct writing. The Court agreed that if the web-page is construed as a single document, it would violate the express terms of the statute that the document solely consist of the requisite disclosures. Burnthorne-Martinez v. Sephora (N.D. Ca. 2016). Click here for more.