Category: Ignorant or unreasonable
Are you an Equifax breach victim? You could give up right to sue to find out | Ars Technica
The breach, via a security flaw on the Equifax website, included full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver license numbers in some cases. Many of the affected consumers have never even directly done business with the giant consumer credit reporting agency. But if you want to find out if your data might have been exposed, you waive your right to sue the Atlanta-based company. We’re not making this up. The company has now published a website allowing consumers to input their last six digits of their Social Security numbers to find out.
Source: Are you an Equifax breach victim? You could give up right to sue to find out | Ars Technica
Kodi Declares ‘War’ on Trademark Trolls – TorrentFreak
The Kodi team, operating under the XBMC Foundation, is taking a stand against ‘trademark trolls’ who abuse the Kodi name for personal profit. They accuse the Canadian trademark owner of actively blackmailing hardware vendors and removing content from Amazon. If needed, the foundation says that it may have to take legal action to keep its software freely accessible.
Source: Kodi Declares ‘War’ on Trademark Trolls – TorrentFreak
FDA slams EpiPen maker for doing nothing while hundreds failed, people died | Ars Technica UK
The manufacturer of EpiPen devices failed to address known malfunctions in its epinephrine auto-injectors even as hundreds of customer complaints rolled in and failures were linked to deaths, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The damning allegations came to light today when the FDA posted a warning letter it sent September 5 to the manufacturer, Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc. The company (which is owned by Pfizer) produces EpiPens for Mylan, which owns the devices and is notorious for dramatically raising prices by more than 400 percent in recent years.The auto-injectors are designed to be used during life-threatening allergic reactions to provide a quick shot of epinephrine. If they fail to fire, people experiencing a reaction can die or suffer serious illnesses. According to the FDA, that’s exactly what happened for hundreds of customers.
Source: FDA slams EpiPen maker for doing nothing while hundreds failed, people died | Ars Technica UK
Opioid maker caught on tape lying to push deadly drug on patient | Ars Technica
Opioid makers have been accused—and in many cases convicted—of doing all sorts of shady things to get people on highly addictive, often deadly opioid pain medications and spurring the devastating epidemic the country is now facing. They’ve allegedly greased doctors into writing unnecessary prescriptions, hidden and misled everyone on the drugs’ addictiveness, and looked the other way as large orders of opioids made their way to the black market.FURTHER READINGLawsuit: Greedy drug maker purposefully flooded black market with opioidsBut an investigation led by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, adds a new seedy tidbit to the list: posing as doctors’ offices and straight-up lying to insurers to get deadly, powerful opioids covered for patients who don’t need them. In an audio file and report (PDF) released Wednesday by McCaskill, that’s exactly what you can hear a representative of Insys Therapeutics doing.
Source: Opioid maker caught on tape lying to push deadly drug on patient | Ars Technica
Florida Sheriff Plans To Use Hurricane Irma To Bump Up Arrest Numbers, Fill His Jail | Techdirt
Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, spent most of Wednesday morning letting America know what an awful person he is. With Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida, Judd helpfully suggested sex offenders or those with outstanding warrants would be better off lashing themselves to a nearby tree rather than seeking shelter.
Source: Florida Sheriff Plans To Use Hurricane Irma To Bump Up Arrest Numbers, Fill His Jail | Techdirt
Stupid Patent of the Month: JP Morgan Patents Interapp Permissions | Electronic Frontier Foundation
On August 29, 2017, the Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 9,747,468 (the ’468 patent) to JP Morgan Chase Bank, titled “System and Method for Communication Among Mobile Applications.” The patent covers the simple idea of a user giving a mobile application permission to communicate with another application. This idea was obvious when JP Morgan applied for the patent in June 2013. Even worse, it had already been implemented by numerous mobile applications. The Patent Office handed out a broad software monopoly while ignoring both common sense and the real world.
Source: Stupid Patent of the Month: JP Morgan Patents Interapp Permissions | Electronic Frontier Foundation
CDC: Homeopathic “healing bracelet” poisons baby with high levels of lead | Ars Technica UK
Beads tested positive for lead after baby found to have 8X worrying levels in blood.
Source: CDC: Homeopathic “healing bracelet” poisons baby with high levels of lead | Ars Technica UK
Georgia Cop Tells Scared White Woman During Traffic Stop: ‘We Only Kill Black People’
After a white woman who was pulled over for for a DUI told a Cobb County, GA, police officer that she was afraid to move her hands for fear of getting shot, the cop reassured her: “We only kill black people.”
Source: Georgia Cop Tells Scared White Woman During Traffic Stop: ‘We Only Kill Black People’
Georgia GOP Rep. Tells Former Colleague She May ‘Go Missing’ Over Criticism of Confederate Monuments
A Georgia advocate for removing confederate monuments gets a not-so-veiled-threat from a GOP lawmaker.
Source: Georgia GOP Rep. Tells Former Colleague She May ‘Go Missing’ Over Criticism of Confederate Monuments