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Showing posts from June, 2021

FTC Sues PPE Marketer for Falsely Promising Quick Delivery of N95 Facemasks

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Agency further charges Frank Romero violated the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act by misrepresenting mask quality, and the Mail, Internet, Telephone Order Merchandise Rule for failing to cancel and refund orders The Federal Trade Commission charged an online marketer with falsely promising consumers that he could quickly deliver facemasks and other personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, then failing to deliver on customers’ orders or offer cancellations or refunds. In a federal court complaint filed today , the FTC alleges that Frank Romero (d/b/a Trend Deploy) took advantage of consumers’ fear of COVID-19 by advertising the availability and quick delivery of PPE, including N95 facemasks, even though he had no basis to make those promises. Romero allegedly failed to deliver PPE on time (if at all), failed to notify consumers of delayed shipments, failed to offer the cancellations and refunds required by the FTC’s Mail Order Rule, and failed to honor requests

Google pushes back third-party cookie block until 2023

The market for SMS marketing

By 2024, there will be more than 7 billion mobile users worldwide and the market for SMS marketing is set to be worth a staggering $83 billion.

FTC Sends Checks to People Who Lost Money to Student Loan Debt Relief Scheme

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The Federal Trade Commission is sending checks totaling more than $316,000 to 10,689 people who lost money to a student loan debt relief scheme. In a complaint first announced in March 2020 , the FTC alleged SLAC (which also used the name Aspyre), Navloan, and Student Loan Assistance Center, and their owner, Adam Owens, falsely told consumers that, for an upfront fee of $699 and a monthly fee of $39, the defendants would permanently lower or eliminate student loan debt. In reality, the payments could change every year, and loan forgiveness was not guaranteed for any consumer. The FTC also alleged that the defendants paid consumers for positive reviews on the Better Business Bureau website and failed to disclose those payments. As part of a settlement with the FTC, the defendants agreed to pay funds, which are being used to send payments to affected consumers. People who receive checks should deposit or cash their checks within 90 days, as indicated on the check. Recipients who

FTC Sends Refunds to People who Lost Money to Student Loan, Mortgage Debt Relief Scheme

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The Federal Trade Commission is sending refunds totaling more than $223,000 to people who lost money to a student loan and mortgage debt relief operation. The FTC alleged that A1 DocPrep Inc., Streamlined Marketing, and their owner, Horman Ardalan falsely claimed to be from the Department of Education, and promised to reduce borrowers’ monthly payments or forgive their student loans in exchange for illegal upfront fees, according to the FTC’s September 2017 complaint . The FTC also alleged the defendants targeted distressed homeowners by making false promises that they would provide mortgage relief and prevent foreclosure. The refunds stem from settlements the defendants reached with the FTC that also ban them from debt relief and telemarketing activities and prohibits them from making misrepresentations or unsubstantiated claims related to other financial products or services. The FTC is mailing 136 checks to consumers who previously filed a complaint with law enforcement. Th

FTC Finalizes Order with Flo Health, a Fertility-Tracking App that Shared Sensitive Health Data with Facebook, Google, and Others

The Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement that will require Flo Health Inc. to obtain the affirmative consent of users of the company’s fertility-tracking app before sharing their personal health information with others and to obtain an independent review of their privacy practices. In a complaint first announced in January , the FTC alleges that despite promising to keep users’ health data private, Flo shared sensitive health data from millions of users of its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app with marketing and analytics firms, including Facebook and Google. As part of the settlement, Flo Health must notify affected users about the disclosure of their health information and instruct any third party that received users’ health information to destroy that data. Flo also is prohibited from misrepresenting: the purposes for which it (or entities to whom it discloses data) collect, maintain, use, or disclose the data; how much consumers can control these data uses; its com

How to validate fstab without rebooting in Linux

$ sudo mount -a This command will mount all (not-yet-mounted) filesystems mentioned in fstab and is used in system script startup during booting.

How to fix screen Cannot find terminfo entry for 'screen.xterm-256color'

Switch back to the terminal app that we first set the screen. For example, switch from Gnome Terminal to LXTerminal. Or Find out which TERM is supported: ls /usr/share/terminfo/x this will give you a list of supported TERMs i.e. xterm xterm-xfree86 set the environment variable: export TERM=xterm-xfree86 and run screen: TERMINFO='/usr/share/terminfo/' screen

new AI algorithms look at and try to understand keywords at a deeper, more nuanced level.

Search engines crawled, found, indexed, and classified content based on keywords

New iOS changes are bringing subscriptions to the Apple podcast app and a new monetization path for content creators on it.

Subscribers can unlock ad-free listening, early access to new episodes, bonus material or exclusives depending on the podcaster’s choice.

DNS over HTTPS ( DoH) is a protocol for performing remote Domain Name System (DNS) resolution via the HTTPS protocol.

CIRA Canadian Shield is the only free public DNS service that:

has malicious content protection is run by a not-for-profit agency does not use or monetize your search data, and is 100% Canadian (owned and run, with all servers located in Canada)

The Prime Day 2021 sale starts on Monday, June 21 at 12:01 am PT and ends on June 22 at 11:59 pm PT.

As opposed to structured annotation systems, tags provide users an unstructured, open-ended mechanism to annotate and organize web content.

The goal of SecOps methodology is to ensure that all systems meet performance and availability goals while they are secure and compliant.

Google is only planning to phase out the third-party cookie on its browsers

First-party cookies that track basic data about your own website's visitors are still safe.

Email marketing performs best when you are sending the right message to the right audience at the right time.

Remarketing is usually done by using cookies or some other way to recognize people across websites: adding users to lists and then selecting specific ads to show them.

Google is proposing a new browser standard that enables interest-based advertising without letting advertisers know an individual consumer’s identity.

How to block third-party cookies in Google Chrome

Open Google Chrome and click or tap on the “Customize and control Google Chrome” button from the browser’s top-right... In the menu, select Settings. Scroll down and click or tap on “Cookies and other site data” under “Privacy and security.” To turn off third-party cookies in Chrome, select the “Block third-party cookies” option.

Data privacy and protection laws are designed to protect users, not marketers.

Adjust your zoom level in Slack

Adjust your zoom level in Slack to make text display larger or smaller. The fastest way to adjust your zoom level is to use a keyboard shortcut:   Mac Windows/Linux Zoom in ⌘ + Ctrl + Zoom out ⌘ - Ctrl - You can also change font by running: /slackfont Comic Sans MS

An income trust is an investment trust that holds income-producing assets and trades trust units like a stock on an exchange.

Income trusts generally hold assets which generate a steady flow of income which is then passed onto unit holders. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) is an example of a popular income trust.

FTC and the State of Arkansas Charge Operators of “Blessing Loom” With Running an Illegal Pyramid Scheme

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“Blessings in No Time” program targeted African Americans and harmed people struggling financially during the COVID-19 Pandemic The Federal Trade Commission and the state of Arkansas sued the operators of a “blessing loom” investment program, alleging that it has operated as an illegal pyramid scheme that bilked tens of millions of dollars from thousands of consumers, and targeted African Americans and harmed people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In their joint complaint , the FTC and Arkansas charged that the operators of Blessings in No Time (“BINT”) have lured people into joining their program by falsely promising investment returns as high as 800 percent. The complaint alleges that some BINT members paid as much as $62,700 to participate. In reality, though, as in other pyramid schemes, the vast majority of participants have lost money, the complaint alleges. “The COVID-19 pandemic attacked Americans’ health and their wallets,” said Daniel Kaufman, Acting

Common stock or common share is a security that represents ownership in a corporation.

Some corporations issue both "voting" and non-voting" classes of common stock.

FTC and the State of Arkansas Charge Operators of “Blessing Loom” With Running an Illegal Pyramid Scheme

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“Blessings in No Time” program targeted African Americans and harmed people struggling financially during the COVID-19 Pandemic The Federal Trade Commission and the state of Arkansas sued the operators of a “blessing loom” investment program, alleging that it has operated as an illegal pyramid scheme that bilked tens of millions of dollars from thousands of consumers, and targeted African Americans and harmed people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In their joint complaint , the FTC and Arkansas charged that the operators of Blessings in No Time (“BINT”) have lured people into joining their program by falsely promising investment returns as high as 800 percent. The complaint alleges that some BINT members paid as much as $62,700 to participate. In reality, though, as in other pyramid schemes, the vast majority of participants have lost money, the complaint alleges. “The COVID-19 pandemic attacked Americans’ health and their wallets,” said Daniel Kaufman, Acting

Pinduoduo recently surpassed Alibaba as China’s top shopping site, as measured by the number of customers.

Twitter Newsletters is a new tool that lets you design, schedule, and publish newsletters.

An RSS feed is a file that contains a summary of updates from a website, often in the form of a list of articles with links.

Unstar Gmail in bulk

Open the label (or, your Inbox, or Sent Mail, etc) containing the messages you'd like to select. Click the Select: All link above your messages. Click the link that says Select all [number] conversations in [current view]. Select the  3 dots above the selections >remove star 

Tangerine Global ETF Portfolios

Tangerine is launching a new suite of 3 Global ETF portfolios that are constructed using low-cost ETFs within the convenient structure of a mutual fund to keep fees low and accessibility simple. These portfolios provide the broadest diversification including emerging and international markets to capture sources of expected return from all around the world. A simple low cost way to have exposure to a selection of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in a mutual fund. Our new Global ETF Portfolios are the newest addition to our Investment family. Key Features: Greater global exposure - invest in over 45 countries around the world Low management so we can keep your money working harder for you Made up of a selection of ETFs to meet your growth needs MER: 0.77%

Management expense ratio (MER)

A management expense ratio (MER), measures how much of a fund's assets are used for administrative and other operating expenses. It represents the annual cost of owning the Fund.

Infectious disease experts widely agree that the two doses required to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus will offer stronger protection against the delta variant of the virus

How to Rename a Docker Container

docker rename id-or-former-name new-name

FTC Approves Final Administrative Consent Order Against Amazon for Withholding Customer Tips from Amazon Flex Drivers

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final administrative consent order against Amazon, which has agreed to pay more than $61.7 million to settle charges that it failed to pay Amazon Flex drivers the full amount of tips they received from Amazon customers over a two and a half year period. According to the FTC’s administrative complaint , announced in February 2021, the company regularly advertised that drivers participating in the Flex program would be paid $18-25 per hour for their work making deliveries to customers. The ads, along with numerous other documents provided to Flex drivers, also prominently featured statements such as: “You will receive 100% of the tips you earn while delivering with Amazon Flex.” The FTC’s complaint alleges that Amazon also assured its customers that 100 percent of any tips they paid would go to the driver. According to the complaint, the company stopped the challenged conduct only after becoming aware of the

FTC Sends Nearly $30 Million in Refunds to People Tricked into Enrolling by School Operator’s Lead Generators

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Career Education Corporation refund distribution, averaging more than $3,700 per person, is the largest per person average in agency’s history The Federal Trade Commission is sending nearly $30 million in refunds to people tricked by agents working on behalf of Career Education Corporation (currently operating as Perdoceo Education Corporation), the operator of several post-secondary schools. CEC’s lead generators tricked consumers into providing their information and enrolling at CEC schools using a variety of deceptive methods, including pretending to be U.S. military recruiters, or affiliated with the military, and falsely promising to provide assistance with job placement and various public benefits, according to the FTC’s complaint. In 2019, CEC and its subsidiaries , American InterContinental University, Inc., AIU Online, LLC, Marlin Acquisition Corporation, Colorado Technical University, Inc., and Colorado Tech., Inc., settled FTC charges that they used lead generators to

FTC Sends More Than $172 Million in Refunds to Consumers Misled by Rent-To-Own Provider Progressive Leasing

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More than two million consumers will receive refunds from FTC case alleging false promises of “same as cash” payment plans The Federal Trade Commission is returning more than $172 million to consumers who overpaid for merchandise they purchased using rent-to-own plans provided by Progressive Leasing. More than two million consumers will receive refund checks. The FTC’s complaint against the company , filed in April 2020, alleged that Progressive misled consumers about the true price of items purchased through its plans. Consumers who visited retailers to buy items such as furniture, jewelry, or cellphones frequently were told that Progressive’s payment plans were “same as cash” or “no interest” – leading consumers to believe they would not be charged more than an item’s sticker price. Instead, the complaint alleged, consumers paid more than the sticker price, and frequently paid approximately twice the sticker price if they made all their scheduled payments. The FTC also alleged

The Bank of Canada is expected to announce its decision for its overnight interest rate target on Wednesday.

Open Container Initiative

The Open Container Initiative is an open governance structure for the express purpose of creating open industry standards around container formats and runtimes.

Podman is a daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI Containers on your Linux System.

Containers can either be run as root or in rootless mode.

Import usernames and passwords from a file to Firefox

Enable this feature first: go to the Firefox Configuration Editor (about:config page), find the signon.management.page.fileImport.enabled preference and toggle it to true. Click on the menu button Fx89menuButton to open the menu panel. Click Passwords. The Firefox Lockwise about:logins page will open in a new tab. Click the Firefox Lockwise menu (three dots), then click Import from a File…

Blocking IP addresses using Firewalld

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule="rule family='ipv4' source address='192.168.0.88' reject"

SERP - Search Engine Results Pages are the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user.

The main component of the SERP is the listing of results that are returned by the search engine in response to a keyword query. Featured snippets. Featured snippets show a snippet of content  Knowledge card. Knowledge Cards appear at the top of the SERP Knowledge Panel. Knowledge Panels provide information about the main subject Image Pack. Image Packs show a handful of thumbnails

A new tag for a more intelligent Analytics

The new, more intelligent Google Analytics experience is here . This next generation of Google Analytics will take your digital analytics to a whole new level by delivering the essential customer insights you need. In order to experience this new Analytics, you will need to upgrade to Google's latest dynamic tagging solution.

FTC Approves Final Administrative Consent Orders against Companies that Deceptively Marketed Fish Oil Supplements with False Claims They Were Clinically Proven to Treat Liver Disease

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved final administrative consent orders against three companies, BASF SE , its subsidiary, BASF Corp. and DIEM Labs , which together have agreed to pay more than $416,000 to settle charges that they deceptively marketed two dietary fish oil supplements as clinically proven to reduce liver fat in adults and children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). According to the FTC’s administrative complaint, announced in April 2021, BASF SE, which developed and owns the supplements Hepaxa and Hepaxa PD, acted through its North American subsidiary, BASF Corp., to retain DIEM Labs to advertise and distribute both supplements in the United States. Until mid-2020, the FTC’s complaint alleges, the companies deceptively advertised the two products as clinically proven to reduce liver fat in adults and children with NAFLD, without the scientific evidence needed to back up the claims. The final orders cover Hepaxa, Hep

New stress test level makes it harder to qualify for a mortgage in Canada

You're Never Too Old To Take Advice From Dad