Current Events in April 2018

K9 Natural Ltd. is recalling four batches of the K9 Natural Frozen Chicken Feast 2.2-lb. and 11-lb. bags that were imported into the U.S. in June 2017.

The product may be contaminated with Listeria Monocytogenes.

No pet or human illnesses, injuries or complaints have been reported to date.

The recalled batch numbers are:

K9 Natural Frozen Chicken Feast 2.2-lb. bags, shipped to distributors in Washington, California, Texas and Colorado, and distributed to pet specialty retail stores.

• Batch number #170517 with an expiration date of 17NOV2018

K9 Natural Frozen Chicken Feast 11-lb. bags, shipped to distributors in Washington, California, Texas and Colorado and Pennsylvania, and distributed to pet specialty retail stores.

• Batch number #150517 with an expiration date of 15NOV2018
• Batch number #160517 with an expiration date of 16NOV2018
• Batch number #170517 with an expiration date of 17NOV2018

The batch number and expiration dates are stamped in the bottom left on the back of the pack.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should stop using it product and return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund or replacement.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 888-345-4680 Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm (PST) & (EST), by email atinfo@k9natural.com.

Polaris Industries of Medina, Minn., is recalling about 4,600 Polaris Phoenix 200 all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

The throttle limiter can fail due to damage during shipping, posing a crash hazard.

The firm has received nine reports of a damaged throttle limiter, including one report of throttle limiter failure that resulted in minor injuries.

This recall involves all model year 2014 through 2017 Phoenix 200 all-terrain vehicles.

“Polaris” is stamped on the front grill and on the sides of the ATV seats, and “Phoenix 200” is stamped on the side panels. The ATVs were sold in blue and gray.

Model numbers A14PB20AF, A15YAP20AF, A16YAP20AF and A17YAP20A8, located on the vehicle frame, are included in this recall. The model number is located on the vehicle frame.

The ATVs, manufactured in Taiwan, were sold at Polaris dealers nationwide from July 2013, through April 2018, for about $3,600.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ATVs and contact Polaris for instructions on how to inspect for a damaged throttle limiter, and, if damaged, to schedule a free repair.

Consumers may contact Polaris at 800-765-2747 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday or online at www.polaris.com and click on “Off Road Safety Recalls” at the bottom of the page for more information.

Wells Fargo could face a mega-fine for the way it conducted its auto loan and mortgage businesses.

The Washington Post quotes two sources close to the settlement negotiations as saying the fine could approach $1 billion, making it by far the largest handed out during the Trump administration.

Two government agencies -- the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- have had Wells Fargo under a microscope since it revealed that it had sold insurance to some auto loan customers without their knowledge. The action reportedly pushed some borrowers into default. The banks also admitted to charging some improper mortgage fees.

That, of course, came after the 2016 revelations that the bank had opened checking and credit card accounts for millions of customers without their knowledge or permission. The bank paid more than $100 million to settle those charges.

While eliminating some Obama-era regulations on banks, President Trump has said his administration will act when banks take action that is damaging to consumers.

“Fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped, as has been incorrectly reported, but will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased,” Trump said in a tweet in late 2017. “I will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating.”

Collateral protection insurance

In 2017, Wells Fargo revealed that more than a half million consumers who financed auto purchases through the bank may have been sold a collateral protection insurance (CPI) without their knowledge or consent.

The bank promised that many of those customers would receive refunds “and other payments” as compensation, in the neighborhood of $80 million.

All auto lenders require borrowers to maintain adequate insurance on the financed vehicle to ensure the lender is repaid if the vehicle is stolen or damaged in a crash. Wells Fargo says its lending agreement allows it to buy a CPI policy from a vendor on the customer’s behalf if there was no evidence — either from the customer or the insurance company — that the customer already had the required insurance.

Wells Fargo says it discontinued the practice in September 2016, about the time the fake accounts scandal broke.

A report by Bloomberg News said Wells Fargo employed a vendor to provide CPI to Wells Fargo auto loan customers, but it did not always verify whether the customers had adequate insurance coverage. As a result, many were sold policies they didn't need.

Ads for major corporations that are household names are routinely shown on YouTube videos identified as “extremist content,” according to a CNN investigation.

The TV network said it counted at least 300 businesses and organizations whose ads have run on videos about white nationalists, pedophilia, and even North Korean propaganda.

When an advertiser places a buy on YouTube, its message is inserted into the site’s content, sometimes playing before the start of a video. YouTube, which is owned by Google, often tries to match the advertiser's message with the tone of the video, but sometimes the ads are placed at random.

The CNN report found five U.S. government agencies had paid for ads that were paired with the out-of-the-mainstream videos, meaning U.S. tax dollars went to the videos' producers.

In addition, the analysis found ads for Hershey, Facebook, Nordstrom, Amazon, Hilton, Netflix, Adidas, and Under Armour on these videos. When contacted by CNN, the companies said they were not aware they were sponsoring extremist content.

Under Armour pauses ads

A spokesman for Under Armour told CNN the company is suspending its advertising on the video platform until it can investigate how its messages are being displayed.

YouTube gives advertisers a tool that can be used to target advertising messages to certain demographics and user behavior. They can block specific topics and employ a filter that keeps ads away from videos pertaining to sensitive subjects.

A spokeswoman for YouTube told CNN that the company has worked with advertisers to implement better controls, stricter policies, and greater transparency when it comes to ad placement.

“When we find that ads mistakenly ran against content that doesn’t comply with our policies, we immediately remove those ads,” she said.

YouTube policy

A year ago YouTube made changes to the way video producers can monetize their videos on the platform. The change requires video producers to rack up at least 10,000 lifetime views on their channel before they have the option to have ads appear in their videos.

YouTube made the change, not to weed out extremist content, but to crack down on copycat creators – those who copy videos from other sources and put them on their channel.

Lyft co-founder John Zimmer announced Thursday that all Lyft rides are now carbon neutral thanks to the transportation service’s multimillion-dollar investment in carbon offset programs.

Lyft will balance out its vehicles’ emissions by investing in an undisclosed number of environmental and sustainability efforts. The company anticipates neutralizing “over a million metric tons of carbon” in just the first year of utilizing carbon offsets.

"Lyft rides are now carbon-neutral through the direct funding of emission mitigation efforts, including the reduction of emissions in the automotive manufacturing process, renewable energy programs, forestry projects, and the capture of emissions from landfills," Zimmer wrote.

Combating climate change

The decision to go carbon neutral is rooted in the fact that Lyft is aware of transportation’s harsh impact on the environment.

“The stark reality is that transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions,” the company’s co-founders wrote. “As a growing part of the transportation ecosystem, we are holding ourselves accountable to being part of the solution.”

“This action is not the full solution, but a real step forward,” Zimmer and Green added.

An expensive endeavor

The company will invest millions in balancing out its carbon footprint. Lyft says it will be teaming up with an organization called 3Degrees, which oversees the registration and independent verification of carbon-offset projects.

“The majority of these projects will be in close proximity to our largest markets, and all projects will be US-based,” the co-founders wrote.

Lyft’s eco-friendly aspirations were initially born of President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate accord. After the decision was made, Lyft hired its own climate advisor and joined “We Are Still In” -- a coalition of businesses and local governments who pledged to continue to uphold the agreement.

Healthy diets are a leading cause of food waste in America, according to new research by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Researchers say that’s because fruits and vegetables are a central part of a healthy diet, and fruits and vegetables are the two types of food that are most likely to be thrown out by consumers (followed by dairy and then meat).

"Higher quality diets have greater amounts of fruits and vegetables, which are being wasted in greater quantities than other food," said Meredith Niles, a co-author of the study from the University of Vermont, in a statement.

"Eating healthy is important, and brings many benefits, but as we pursue these diets, we must think much more consciously about food waste,” Niles said.

150,000 tons of food wasted each day

For the study, researchers at the USDA analyzed eight years of food data, between 2007 to 2014, to see where food is wasted and what consumers say they do at mealtimes. The study found that 150,000 tons of food is wasted each day in the U.S., which is equivalent to one pound per person.

The researchers noted that fruits and vegetables are most frequently thrown out, and this category of food requires a substantial amount of water and pesticides to grow. Even diets that aren’t rich in fruits and vegetables can have a negative impact on the environment, as they lead to more wasted cropland.

Wasted food was found to have used 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water, 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer, 780 million pounds of pesticides, and 30 million acres of land each year. The use of these resources takes a toll on the environment, the researchers said.

Cutting waste through proper food storage

The study authors are calling for increased efforts to improve diet quality while simultaneously reducing food waste. “Increasing consumers’ knowledge about how to prepare and store fruits and vegetables will be one of the practical solutions,” the report said.

The authors suggested several paths to mitigating the problem of food waste in America. Consumers can be taught how to properly prepare and store fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as how to tell whether produce has actually gone bad or if it’s just cosmetically imperfect. Sell-by dates and labels could also be revised for consistency.

"Food waste is an issue that plays out at many different levels,” said lead author Zach Conrad from the USDA. “Looking at them holistically will become increasingly important to finding sustainable ways of meeting the needs of a growing world population.”

The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

A new white paper -- "Understanding and Improving Privacy ‘Audits’ under FTC Orders’" -- calls the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the carpet for its lenient approach to privacy audits required of tech companies like Facebook and Google.

"These audits, as a practical matter, are often the only ‘tooth’ in FTC orders to protect consumer privacy," wrote Megan Gray, an FTC attorney and non-residential fellow at Stanford Law School. "They are critically important to accomplishing the agency’s privacy mission. As such, a failure to attend to their robust enforcement can have unintended consequences, and arguably, provide consumers with a false sense of security."

While the FTC’s privacy audits are regarded as an efficient way of keeping tech companies in line with privacy commitments made to consumers, Gray urges the agency to improve its privacy standards if it intends on being serious about protecting consumers.

The paper illuminates how privacy audits are not actually audits as most understand them to be.  Rather, because the FTC’s language only requires third-party "assessments," tech companies get away with submitting reports that are essentially a confirmation that they did all that was required.

Take Facebook for instance

A contemporary example would be Facebook’s run-in with its users’ privacy. Under the social media company’s agreement with the FTC, all it’s required to do is undergo twice-yearly privacy audits to show it isn’t misinforming its users about their privacy.

However, none of Facebook’s audits brought Cambridge Analytica’s data mining into question. Despite Facebook knowing about the misuse as far back as 2015, Congressional leaders implied that Facebook wasn’t following the FTC’s instructions as rigorously as it should have been.

In the FTC’s complaint against Facebook, the agency harped on the word "deceptive" in questioning Facebook on how it handled users’ private information in areas like profile and app settings.

As an example, the FTC brought up the fact that in November 2009, approximately 586,241 users had used their Friends’ App Settings to "block" Platform Applications that their Friends used from accessing any of their profile information, including their Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Friend List, Pages, and Networks.

Yet, in Facebook’s December 2009 Privacy Changes, its users could no longer restrict access to their "publicly available information," and all prior user choices to do that were overridden. Although Facebook reinstated those settings soon thereafter, the FTC found that the settings weren’t stored to a user’s Profile Privacy restrictions and instead were essentially hidden.

Better protection of consumers’ privacy is needed

Gray offers several ways the FTC could improve its privacy audits. At the top of her list would be requiring the FTC to end its reliance on a company’s simple confirmation that its privacy protection is up to snuff.

Gray suggests that the current method could be greatly improved if the FTC detailed its expectations in what it wants privacy auditors to examine and have assessors report directly to the FTC instead of the company being audited.

"Simply ‘staying the course’ puts consumers...in an untenable situation, with real-world consequences," concludes Gray. "It’s time to dive deeply into understanding these third-party privacy assessments and consider meaningful proposals for their improvement. The FTC is an extraordinary agency, and it is more than capable of rising to this challenge."

In an email to ConsumerAffairs, the FTC stated that Gray currently has no involvement with current privacy or data security investigations and that the comments made in her paper do not reflect the agency's views.

The nation’s largest teachers union has cut ties with Wells Fargo over the bank’s financial relationship with gunmakers and the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) removed the bank from its list of recommended mortgage lenders after attempts to meet with Wells Fargo executives to discuss the matter were met with silence, according to a letter released Thursday.

"Despite our several attempts, by phone and email, to schedule such a meeting, your office's response has been radio silence," AFT President Randi Weingarten said in the letter to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan.

Connection to the NRA

The teachers union had previously requested that Wells Fargo cut lending ties with or impose new restrictions on firearms business partners following the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The AFT’s decision to drop the bank came after multiple attempts to engage in a conversation about gun violence with CEO Tim Sloan went unanswered.

“We can only assume that, in light of your silence and the NRA attacks, you have decided that the NRA business is more valuable to you than students and their educators are,” the letter stated.

The AFT has 1.7 million members and channels about 20,000 mortgages to Wells Fargo through its benefit program. The union said it will stop offering mortgages from the bank unless it ends its relationship with the gun business.

Wells Fargo responds

Wells Fargo said it wants schools to be safe, but that elected officials -- not banks -- should decide which products Americans can buy. It added that safety issues should be decided by lawmakers.

Other banks have taken a different stance. Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, and others have limited their business dealings with gunmakers in light of recent events.

Weingarten said that the AFT has a responsibility to its members and their students who face potential gun violence every day.

“Gun violence is a public health epidemic, and in order to help stop it, we’ll stop the flow of resources to the companies that manufacture these weapons that have caused so much civilian carnage and death,” Weingarten said.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, and the resulting housing market crash, fewer American families have been able to purchase homes.

A report by The Pew Charitable Trusts finds that has meant more families are today carrying an increasingly heavy rent burden. Rent-burdened households are those spending 30 percent or more of their monthly income on rent.

The Pew researchers say these families are slower to transition to homeownership and are more financially fragile than those spending less than 30 percent of their income on shelter.

In the wake of the housing crash, mortgage lenders dramatically increased their lending standards, meaning fewer consumers could qualify for a mortgage to purchase a home. That kept more consumers in the rental market, dramatically raising rents in most areas.

Mortgage standards have been relaxed a bit, but there are fewer homes to buy because home builders have scaled back their production over the last decade. That means some families that might be able to afford a home continue to rent.

Slow to transition to homeownership

The Pew analysis employs the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a data set of U.S. household finances developed by the University of Michigan, to examine how rising rents affected households’ ability to save up money and transition to homeownership between 2001 and 2015.

The report also takes into consideration the constraints imposed by the supply and demand of rental properties, resulting in fast-rising rents.

The result is that rent-burdened households face challenges saving for long-term wealth building, such as homeownership.

“We know that families can’t be upwardly mobile if they aren’t financially secure,” said Erin Currier, director of Pew’s financial security and mobility project. “Our data shows that the rising number of rent-burdened households represents a population struggling to transition to homeownership and, more importantly, that a growing number of Americans are in a precarious financial state.”

Rising number of 'severely' rent-burdened households

In 2015, 38 percent of renter households were considered rent-burdened, up 19 percent from 2001. What's worse, "severely" rent-burdened households -- those spending 50 percent or more of monthly income on rent -- rose by 42 percent during the same period.

The pressures were greater on African American families, with 13 percent more of their households being rent-burdened when compared to white households. Households headed by seniors were also more likely to be rent-burdened.

"As more households rely on renting for their long-term housing needs, they are finding the cost of renting increasingly onerous," the authors write. "The steadily rising demand for rental properties over the past decade has reduced vacancy rates to near historic lows, fueling a rapid increase in rental market prices that has outpaced household incomes for many families."

The report concludes the imbalance is contributing to increasing rates of rent burden, leading to higher eviction rates, increased financial fragility, and wider use of social safety net programs.

Wild & Wolf of the U.K. is recalling about 2,900 Petit Collage musical jumbo wooden xylophones sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The ball on the end of the toy xylophone beater stick can separate, posing a choking hazard to young children.

The firm has received one report of the ball separating from the beater rod and one report of the ball being loose. No injuries have been reported.

This recall involves Petit Collage musical jumbo wooden xylophones.

The recalled children's toy xylophone has a wooden base shaped like the profile of an elephant with five different colored metal keys and a wooden beater stick with a red wooden ball attached to one end. The beater stick measures about 5 5/8 inches long by 3/4 inches wide.

“Petit Collage” and “TT.1902.0617” are printed on the bottom back of the xylophone. Only xylophones with this letter/number combination are included in the recall.

The xylophones, manufactured in China, were sold at Barnes & Noble, Patina, Urban Outfitters stores and other stores nationwide and online at PetitCollage.com and other websites from August 2017, through February 2018, for about $24.

What to do

Consumers should immediately take the recalled toy xylophone beater sticks away from children, stop using them and contact Wild & Wolf for a free replacement beater stick.

Consumers may contact Wild & Wolf toll free at 855-215-5879 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) Monday through Friday, online at www.petitcollage.com and click on “Product Safety” or www.wildandwolf.com and click on “Product Safety News” for more information.

Seacrest Foods International of Lynn, Mass., is recalling 29 cases of Formagere de la Brie brand, l’Explorateur soft ripened cheese.

The product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

No illnesses have been confirmed by public health authorities to date.

The recalled product, made from pasteurized milk and comes in a 250g (8.8 oz), clear plastic package marked with lot # H010 or H011 on the bottom, with UPC: 3 390010 004080., was distributed at retail stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey and New Hampshire from February 6, 2018 through March 31, 2018.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, but discard it or return it to the store for refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Seacrest Foods at 781-581-2066 from 9:00 a.m. – 5 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday.

Federal safety investigators continue to examine the engine of a Southwest Airlines jet that killed a passenger when it exploded in midair. They suggest it could be linked to a similar incident that occurred in 2016.

A team from the National Transportation Safety Board reports that a preliminary inspection shows a metal fan blade failed, the same thing that happened two years ago. In that incident, a Southwest jet powered by the same type of engine landed safely in Florida after a blade separated from the engine.

But the incident Tuesday had fatal consequences. A woman passenger seated by a window died when metal debris from the engine shattered the window, hitting her and nearly sucking her out of the aircraft. Several other passengers were injured, but the plane landed safely in Philadelphia.

Investigators say metal fatigue was the likely cause of the accident, and Southwest Airlines has announced an acceleration of its program to inspect CFM56-7B engines used on its Boeing 737 aircraft.

The inspections won't be limited to Southwest jets. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will issue an airworthiness directive that will require inspections of certain CFM56-7B engines.

The agency said it plans to require an ultrasonic inspection of fan blades when they reach a certain number of takeoffs and landings. Any blades that fail the inspection will have to be replaced.

According to Boeing, the CFM56-7B engine is used on more than 8,000 Boeing 737 jet aircraft.

As part of its integration with Amazon, Whole Foods will retire its existing rewards program and fold everything into Amazon Prime.

The grocer said in an email to customers that unused rewards will not roll over to Amazon Prime, so customers should try to use their benefits before the program ends on May 2. Whole Foods said customers can continue to use manufacturers' coupons in store, but they'll need to redeem any digital rewards by May 1.

“Something great is cooking with Amazon,” Whole Foods said on its website. “Stay tuned for additional announcements for Amazon Prime members.”

Bringing Amazon perks to Whole Foods

When Amazon acquired Whole Foods last year, Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke noted that Amazon planned to “make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market.”

“Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits," a 2017 press release stated.

The Amazon integration has spawned a range of new programs at Whole Foods stores, including discounts for Prime members, free two-hour grocery delivery via Prime Now, and a five percent cashback incentive for Whole Foods shoppers with an Amazon Prime rewards card.

More than 100 million Prime members

In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company has for the first time exceeded 100 million Prime members globally. Last year, the company added more Prime members than ever.

The company also sold the largest number of devices last year, with customers buying "tens of millions" of Echo devices, Bezos wrote in the letter. Shortly after the Whole Foods deal closed, Amazon began selling its Echo speakers in stores nationwide.

Bezos said Amazon is currently tackling how to bring Prime member benefits to Whole Foods shoppers.

“We’ve also begun the technical work needed to recognize Prime members at the point of sale and look forward to offering more Prime benefits to Whole Foods shoppers once that work is completed,” Bezos wrote.

Google’s Chrome browser has competent protection against malicious websites already in place, but Microsoft feels it can make Chrome’s armor even stronger with a new browser extension called "Windows Defender Browser Protection."

The primary drawing point of Microsoft’s plug-in is added protection against phishing. Phishing occurs when hackers attempt to maliciously obtain sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details by posing as a trustworthy person or company. The scams usually come in the form of a spoof email that directs the user to a fraudulent, but authentic-looking, website.

Well-known examples of phishing include the Nigerian family who’s trying to flee the country, advanced fees paid for a guaranteed loan, and the “turn your computer into a money-making machine” ploy.

The more protection, the better

Microsoft rationalizes its reason for invading Google’s turf by pointing to a 2017 NSS Labs report on web browser security that showed its Edge browser thwarted 99 percent of phishing attempts while Chrome only caught 87 percent. In theory, Microsoft’s Edge plug-in should bring Chrome up to 99 percent as well.

"The Windows Defender Browser Protection extension for Google Chrome allows you to add an additional layer of protection when browsing online, powered by the same trusted intelligence found in Microsoft Edge," wrote Microsoft’s team. "The extension alerts you about known malicious links, and gives you a clear path back to safety."

Some pundits theorize that Microsoft stopped short of directly comparing its extension to Chrome’s current security component -- possibly in hopes of reclaiming some of the browser turf the company lost to Google.

They may be right. Microsoft Internet Explorer’s previous dominance of the browser market is now a ghost in the company’s rearview mirror, and its infant two-year-old Edge browser is still trying to gain traction. According to NetMarketShare, Chrome is the reigning king with more than 60 percent of the browser market, with Internet Explorer way back at 12 percent and Edge at 4 percent.

The Defender plugin is for use only by Windows users who are using the Chrome browser, but not by those using the Chrome operating system.

Facebook has been dealing with a number of privacy-related issues in recent months, and now it has another one to worry about.

The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is investigating a research report which shows  that Facebook user data can be compromised by third-party JavaScript trackers embedded on websites using Login With Facebook.  

Trackers are able to harvest a user’s data -- including name, email address, age range, gender, location, and profile photo -- depending on what users initially provided to the website, according to the research report.

The security researchers found that “when a user grants a website access to their social media profile, they are not only trusting that website, but also third parties embedded on that site.”

“Surreptitious data collection”

Researchers say the unintended exposure of Facebook data to third party JavaScript trackers isn’t due to a flaw in Facebook’s Login feature.

“Rather, it is due to the lack of security boundaries between the first-party and third-party scripts in today’s web,” said the report prepared by Steven Englehardt and two of his colleagues at Freedom to Tinker -- a digital initiative by Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

The research revealed that seven third parties are abusing websites’ access to Facebook user data and one third party using its own Facebook “application” to track users around the web.

Not yet widespread

The scripts were found on more than 400 of the top one million websites, including BandsInTown and MongoDB.

"We were unaware that a third-party technology was using a tracking script that collects parts of Facebook user data. We have identified the source of the script and shut it down," MongoDB told TechCrunch.

This report authors pointed out that this is another example of an exploit that could have been avoided if Facebook had done a better job of auditing how third parties use tools like Login to stop trackers from extracting more information than necessary.

Facebook is already doing damage control on a number of data issues, including the revelation that data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

When questioned by Congress, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook collects “data of people who have not signed up for Facebook.” He claimed the practice was done for security purposes.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced the launch of a “fact-finding inquiry” into the policies and practices of cryptocurrency trading platforms.

In sending the letters, which include detailed questionnaires intended to glean insight into the practices of each platform, Schneiderman aims to increase consumer protection within the digital currency space.

“Too often, consumers don't have the basic facts they need to assess the fairness, integrity, and security of these trading platforms," Schneiderman wrote. "Our Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative sets out to change that, promoting the accountability and transparency in the virtual currency marketplace that investors and consumers deserve."

Schneiderman’s office sent letters to the following major crypto-exchange platforms: GDAX, Gemini, bitFlyer USA, Bitfinex, Bitstamp USA, Kraken, Bittrex, Poloniex, Binance, Tidex, Gate.io, itBit Trust Company, and Huobi.Pro.

Improving transparency

The questionnaire in each letter asks for specific details on exchange fees, trading policies and procedures, internal controls, and privacy and money laundering, among other topics. Trading platforms have until May 1 to respond.  

“Ensuring that enforcement agencies, investors and consumers have the information they need to understand the practices and the risks on these platforms is critical, given reports of the theft of vast sums of virtual currency from customer accounts, sudden and poorly explained trading outages, possible market manipulation and difficulties when withdrawing funds from accounts,” a statement for the Initiative reads.

Most exchanges welcomed the inquiry, and Gemini was one of the first to announce that it will happily comply with the Attorney General’s request.

“Gemini applauds the Attorney General's focus on this industry and the Virtual Markets Initiative, and we look forward to cooperating with and submitting our responses to the questionnaire that has been circulated," Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, said in a statement to CNBC.

Kraken, which left New York in 2015 due to the state’s “foul” cryptocurrency regulatory framework, has said it won’t respond to the Attorney General’s request for information.

"Why don't you try extracting this information from those businesses actually operating in your state?", said Kraken CEO Jesse Powell.

In response to Powell’s remarks, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office told CoinDesk that the requested information should not be hard for exchanges to find.

"Legitimate entities generally like to demonstrate to their investors that their money will be protected. This is basic information that credible platforms should all have on hand," the spokesperson said.

The U.S. Senate has voted, along mostly  party lines, to overturn a 2013 consumer protection rule aimed at preventing costly discrimination against minority car buyers.

Specifically, the legislation would reverse a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulation that prevented auto finance companies from routinely charging minorities a higher interest rate on car loans.

The vote was just the first step in the process. The legislation will still have to be approved by the House and signed by the President to eliminate the CFPB rule.

Car dealers applaud the vote

The CFPB regulation is viewed in opposite ways by consumer advocates and industry groups. The 2013 rule was put in place so minorities wouldn't get stuck with higher car payments.

But the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), which applauded the Senate vote, said the regulation actually ended dealers' ability to offer discounted auto loan rates.

“The CFPB was attempting to change the $1.1 trillion auto loan market and limit market competition without prior public comment, using flawed statistics and without analyzing the impact of its guidance on consumers, despite the likelihood it would raise credit costs for car buyers,” NADA said in a statement.

Warren defends the rule

But what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky,) sees as “chopping away at Obama-era regulations,” Democrats in the Senate view in an entirely different way.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the CFPB passed the rule because it found minority car-buyers were consistently getting worse loans than their white counterparts.

“The underlying reason was something called a dealer reserve - where the lenders providing the financing for a car loan gave the dealer the discretion to mark up the interest rate on the loan and then the dealer could keep some of the additional profit generated from the markup,” Warren said.

“The problem was that there was growing evidence that dealers marked up loans more often and higher for minorities than for whites with similar credit profiles.”

Warren said the legislation that passed the Senate on a 51-47 vote is part of a “broader Republican attack” on efforts to counter economic discrimination. She notes the vote follows Senate action to undo another CFPB regulation that she said makes it harder to monitor the fairness of mortgage lending.