Current Events in May 2019

Access to legal marijuana is increasing state by state, and now researchers from the University of California at San Francisco are investigating how these changes are affecting consumers’ health.

While the researchers report that marijuana has been effective in helping consumers fight chronic pain, there have also been an uptick in car accidents and injuries due to overuse of the drug.

“This unique transition to legalization provides an extraordinary opportunity to investigate the hospitalizations among millions of individuals in the presence of enhanced access,” said researcher Dr. Gregory Marcus. “Our findings demonstrate several potential harmful effects that are relevant for physicians and policymakers, as well as for individuals considering cannabis use.”

A look at hospitalizations

While nearly 30 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and nine have legalized it for recreational purposes, the researchers chose to focus on hospital records two years before and two years after Colorado legalized marijuana to see how the decision affected consumers’ health in that state.

The researchers compared Colorado’s hospitalizations from 2010 through 2014 to hospitalizations in Oklahoma and New York. During that period 16 million hospitalizations were recorded where marijuana use was evident.

Compared to both Oklahoma and New York, hospitalizations due to chronic pain in Colorado were down five percent after marijuana was legalized, though Dr. Marcus did find that alcohol or drug-related injuries landed five percent more people in the hospital. The legalization of marijuana also coincided with 10 percent more people in the hospital due to car accidents.

“These data demonstrate the need to caution strongly against driving while under the influence of any mind-altering substance, such as cannabis, and may suggest that efforts to combat addiction and abuse of other recreational drugs become even more important once cannabis has been legalized,” Dr. Marcus said.

Dr. Marcus warns that this study isn’t advocating for or against any type of legislation, and that more research is needed in this area to gain a deeper understanding of how consumers are affected by the legalization of marijuana.

“While it’s convenient and most often compelling to simplistically conclude a particular public policy is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ an honest assessment of actual effects is much more complex,” said Dr. Marcus. “Those effects are very likely variable, depending on each individual’s idiosyncratic needs, propensities, and circumstances. Using the revenues from recreational cannabis to support this sort of research likely would be a wise investment, both financially and for overall public health.”

Increase in car accidents

Earlier this year, researchers from Monash University conducted a similar study and found that states that legalized marijuana experienced an uptick in traffic accidents.

The study analyzed Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, plus nine neighboring towns in other states, and found that there were nearly 200 additional traffic accidents in the six months following the legalization of marijuana.

Though accidents went down after the first year, neighboring towns felt the backlash, as the researchers suspect many consumers would cross state lines to legally purchase marijuana and get into accidents driving back.

Ford is recalling about 270,00 model year 2013-16 Fusions with 2.5-liter engines in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The bushing that attaches the shifter cable may degrade and detach from the transmission. A shifter cable that detaches from the transmission may allow the transmission to be in a gear state different from the gearshift position selected by the driver.

This condition could allow the driver to move the shift lever to park and remove the ignition key while the transmission may not be in park, with no warning message or audible chime.

If the parking brake is not applied, a shifter cable that detaches from the transmission could result in unintended vehicle movement, increasing the risk of injury or crash.

Ford is aware of three reports claiming property damage and one report alleging an injury that may be related to this condition.

What to do

Ford is working on a remedy for this issue and will notify owners when it is available.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at (866)436-7332. The Ford reference number for this recall is 19S16.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai made another aggressive move towards eradicating unwanted robocalls once and for all.

On Wednesday, Pai issued a declaratory ruling that, if adopted, would allow phone companies to block unwanted robo- and spoofing calls to their customers automatically, not to mention giving the consumer the option to automatically block any phone number that’s not in their personal contact list. Once in effect, a consumer’s approved list of inbound callers would be updated immediately as contacts are added or removed from that list.

In comments to ConsumerAffairs, an FCC spokesperson defined “declaratory ruling” as “a ruling by the agency on its interpretation of the law, often in response to a petition.”

Pai’s proposal includes a safe harbor for phone companies that take the necessary system-wide steps to block any phone call that fails the caller authentication test as laid out in the FCC’s SHAKEN/STIR framework once that proposition is invoked.

“Allowing call blocking by default could be a big benefit for consumers who are sick and tired of robocalls,” said Chairman Pai in a news release on the matter.

“By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them. And, if this decision is adopted, I strongly encourage carriers to begin providing these services by default -- for free -- to their current and future customers. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this latest attack on unwanted robocalls and spoofing.”

There’s little time for the phone companies to get up to speed on the proposal. Pai’s goal is to get the proposal granted and passed at the FCC’s Open Commission meeting on June 6. If it does, then voice service providers can start offering automatic call-blocking services immediately.

Other important elements

Besides the default blocking of unwanted calls, the FCC’s proposal has four other consumer-centric benefits:

1. Voice service providers may offer opt-out call-blocking programs based on any reasonable analytics designed to identify unwanted calls and will have flexibility on how to dispose of those calls, such as sending straight to voicemail, alerting the customer of a robocall, or blocking the call altogether.

2. Providers should clearly disclose to consumers what types of calls may be blocked.

3. Voice service providers must provide sufficient information so that consumers can remain in the program or opt out.

4. Call blocking should not in any way interfere with U.S. emergency communications systems.

Almost everyone’s on board

Joining Pai on his initiative are 42 state attorneys general who’ve made a commitment to lock arms with the FCC and its proposed rulemaking.

Why does the FCC need the help of individual states? It’s simple. Robocalls that infest the residents of one state -- say, Georgia, home to the area code (404) with the most robocalls per person -- rarely originate from inside state lines. That, alone, puts both police and the state attorney general in a bind since neither has little to no enforcement authority.

State law enforcement officials are often on the front lines of the war against robocalls, but they have little heavy artillery to bring to the battle.

The robocalls that plague the residents of one state rarely originate from inside the boundaries of that state, giving the police and the state attorney general little to no enforcement authority.

The states have to depend on the federal government to bring enforcement actions against illegal calls, many of which -- unfortunately -- originate offshore and outside the reach of any law enforcement agency. But even though they are thousands of miles away, these robocallers use a “spoofing” technology to make the caller ID display a local number, increasing the chances the call will be answered.

"Incessant calls from fake phone numbers are not only a nuisance, but they often lead to identity theft and cause billions of dollars in harm to consumers' checkbooks and the economy,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.

Proposed rulemaking

Tong is one of 42 state attorneys general signing onto the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) proposed rulemaking to combat caller ID spoofing activities originating outside the US.

“By updating federal law to allow enforcement against scams from outside the U.S. and ones that use text messaging, we can better combat the increased number of robocalls," he said.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge says her office has received hundreds of complaints about robocalls that appear to come from a local number. Many are outright scams or try to sell anyone who stays on the line worthless and overpriced health insurance policies.

“Arkansas has been leading the charge against these incessant and illegal spoofing calls that scam Arkansans out of thousands of dollars and are often directed to our most vulnerable citizens,” Rutledge said. “This proposed rule would expand the FCC’s authority to hold these bad actors accountable for the harm they cause.”

Truth in Caller ID Act

The Truth in Caller ID Act was passed by Congress in 2009 and generally outlaws spoofing if done to deceive or defraud individuals. In March, the FCC proposed rules to implement recently adopted amendments to the law to toughen its provisions. The 42 state officials say they fully support that.

The officials say they also support the FCC’s current effort to prod cell phone providers to develop anti-spoofing features to protect their customers. This week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pait reminded major phone companies of his demand to implement SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication standards by the end of 2019.

As we reported on Monday, already on board are Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T. Each have made the most progress, and Pai is pushing other companies to catch up. He plans to host a summit for all the companies in July to examine the telecommunication industry’s progress.

Don’t look now, but Bitcoin is back. At least for now.

The digital currency that lifted off like a rocket in 2017, reaching more than $18,000, only to give up most of that gain the following year, is on an upward trajectory once again.

In the last 30 days, Bitcoin has gained more than $3,000 to reach $8,139. It’s been almost a year since the coin has been that high. Investors who held on during the cryptocurrency’s slide are now seeing some of their investment restored.

The milestone coincides with this week’s Consensus Week, the annual gathering of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. One of those who held on during Bitcoin’s painful slide over the last two years is Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors and one of the most bullish of the Bitcoin bulls. Lee says this week’s conference will be a strong indicator of whether Bitcoin still has room to run.

“It’s the largest crypto conference,” Lee said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC. “I think that, really, this year is bringing the crypto industry together, but in a much more higher-quality form because you don’t have as many sorts of scams and ICOs out there.”

Opinion abound

There are plenty of opinions about what has awakened Bitcoin from its recent slumber, but most revolve around geopolitical events. International tensions were running high in 2017 when Bitcoin registered its biggest gains.

This year it’s international trade tensions with China that may be fueling Bitcoin’s rise. The digital currency has been especially strong in the last week as President Trump imposed higher tariffs on China and that country retaliated with tariffs on U.S. exports. Some analysts have speculated that wealthy Chinese citizens have used Bitcoin as a means to move some of their money out of the country.

Lee thinks the digital currency is finally becoming more accepted and that it’s not the exotic, mysterious investment that it appeared to be in 2017.

Higher from here?

“I think that there’s an increasing chance that traditional, non-crypto investors, traditional financial investors, are going to start to look at crypto again,” Lee said. “And that’s very important, obviously, because bringing in that new sort of interest and demand into crypto could really push bitcoin to its all-time high.”

But the doubters haven’t changed their minds. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet recently called Bitcoin “a gambling device.” His Berkshire Hathaway partner Charlie Munger went farther, comparing Bitcoin investors to the infamous biblical character Judas Iscariot.

In the wake of a class action lawsuit, Google has agreed to pay owners of faulty Pixel smartphones manufactured prior to January 4, 2017 up to $500 each.

The settlement follows a complaint filed on behalf of hundreds of customers who experienced “severe microphone issues.” The complaint accused Google of intentionally selling phones with defects.

"Instead of fixing the defective Pixel phones, providing refunds or replacing the devices with nondefective phones, Google has replaced defective phones with other defective phones, resulting in many consumers repeatedly experiencing the microphone defect,” the complaint said.

In March 2017, Google acknowledged the microphone issue and said it affected “less than 1 percent of Pixel phones.” The company added that the defective phones had a “hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec.”

The complaint settled this week was filed less than a year after the company admitted that some Pixel phones had microphone issues. Under the settlement, Google will pay a total of $7,250,000.

Compensation varies

Owners of faulty Pixel phones are eligible to receive varying payouts based on whether they reported the issue and the number of failures they experienced.

• Users who experienced multiple failures from the audio defect, including on a replacement Pixel phone that was sent to them, are eligible to be paid $500 from Google;

• Users who experienced only one failure can receive up to $350;

• Users who didn't report experiencing the audio defect are eligible to be paid $20 by Google; and

• Users who received a third-party insurance payment for the audio defect will be judged on an individual basis.

Since the settlement is still pending approval from the court, the claim submission form isn’t yet available. A hearing slated to take place on June 5 will determine whether or not the case will be granted preliminary approval.

A second federal agency has ruled that Uber drivers are independent contractors, not employees, Bloomberg Law reported. The decision comes amid an ongoing dispute between drivers and Uber regarding the former’s employment classification.

Just last week, Uber drivers protested to demand higher compensation, benefits, and transparent policies. The strike took place just a few days before the company’s IPO.

Uber swiftly reached a settlement with “a large majority” of 60,000 drivers who filed, or said they planned to file, arbitration demands. However, the ride-hailing giant maintained that its drivers are independent contractors because they can decide when they want to work and are allowed to work for competitors.

Now, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has also ruled that Uber drivers are independent contractors. The Board says it will maintain a position that Uber drivers aren’t eligible for federal protections around unionizing since they don’t meet the criteria of being full-time employees.

Control over work hours

“Drivers’ virtually complete control of their cars, work schedules, and log-in locations, together with their freedom to work for competitors of Uber, provided them with significant entrepreneurial opportunity,” the NLRB said in a memorandum written last month and released Tuesday.

“On any given day, at any free moment, UberX drivers could decide how best to serve their economic objectives: by fulfilling ride requests through the App, working for a competing rideshare service, or pursuing a different venture altogether. The surge pricing and other financial incentives Uber utilized to meet rider demand not only reflect Uber’s ‘hands off’ approach, they also constituted a further entrepreneurial opportunity for drivers.”

The same determination was made earlier this year by the Department of Labor (DOL), which said gig-economy workers are independent contractors, and as such, aren’t eligible for minimum wage, overtime pay, and other protections.

Uber acknowledges disappointing IPO

The release of the NLRB’s memo comes just a few days after Uber made a disappointing debut on the stock market. In a note to staff, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged the stock’s lackluster performance and attempted to buoy sinking optimism among employees.

"Like all periods of transition, there are ups and downs. Obviously our stock did not trade as well as we had hoped post-IPO. Today is another tough day in the market, and I expect the same as it relates to our stock," Khosrowshahi wrote. “But it is essential that we keep our eye on the long-term value of Uber for our customers, partners, drivers and investors.”

Uber said Tuesday that it’s continuing to work on improving its relationship with drivers.

"We are focused on improving the quality and security of independent work, while preserving the flexibility drivers and couriers tell us they value," an Uber spokesperson told Bloomberg Law.

Recent studies have explored how children are struggling to get enough sleep at night, and now a new study could explain why sleep is eluding so many young people.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst recently discovered that preschool-aged children who watch TV are sleeping significantly less than those who don’t spend a ton of time in front of the TV.

“The good news is, this is addressable,” said researcher Rebecca Spencer. “Parents assumed that TV was helping their kids wind down. But it didn’t work. Those kids weren’t getting good sleep, and it wasn’t helping them fall asleep better. It’s good to have this data.”

Turning off the TV

To see how watching TV before bed affected kids’ sleeping habits, the researchers had nearly 500 preschoolers participate in a study that involved their parents answering questions about their TV-watching habits, demographics, and overall health.

Additionally, for just over two weeks, the children donned wearable devices that measured their sleeping patterns.

“Given that we already have some data about why sleep and naps are important for young kids, we decided to look into what are the factors that determine when they sleep, how they sleep, and why they sleep,” said Spencer.

One of the biggest findings from the study was that having a TV in the bedroom can be detrimental to children’s quality of sleep. Nearly 40 percent of the preschoolers involved in the study had a TV in their bedrooms, and according to Spencer, many fell asleep with the TV on, which ultimately affected how much sleep they got.

In contrast, children without TVs in their bedrooms slept about a half-hour more per night than their TV-watching counterparts.

Children with TVs in their bedroom did sleep longer during naps but fell short on total sleep in a 24-hour period, which, according to the researchers, is most crucial to their overall sleep quality.

Overall, children who are watching one hour or less of TV each night, compared with children who are watching more than one hour of TV per night, are sleeping nearly three hours more each week.

Focusing on sleep

While Spencer’s study focuses on ensuring preschoolers are getting enough sleep, a recent study found that having a TV in the bedroom can actually affect preschoolers’ development.

Researchers have found time and again that having a TV in the bedroom can be disruptive and pull children away from engaging in other activities that can enhance their development. Children with TVs in their bedroom were also found to have higher BMIs, poorer eating habits, greater depressive symptoms, greater emotional stress, and more.

“The location of the TV seems to matter,” researcher Linda Pagani said. “Having private access to screen time in the bedroom during the preschool years does not bode well for long-term health. Our research supports a strong stance for parental guidelines on the availability and accessibility of TVs and other devices.”

Disney and Comcast announced Tuesday that Disney will assume full operational control of Hulu, effective immediately.

Under the deal, Disney -- which recently became a majority owner of Hulu -- has agreed to pay Comcast at least $5.8 billion for its Hulu stake within five years.

The agreement states that Comcast's ownership in Hulu will never be less than 21 percent. For its part, Disney has guaranteed that Hulu’s equity value at the time of any sale will be at least $27.5 billion.

NBCUniversal has the right to decide in three years to pull its shows from Hulu altogether and put them on its own service, which is set to debut in 2020. Comcast’s split with Hulu will be complete by 2024.

Supporting its streaming efforts

The pact is another indicator that Disney is serious about competing in the streaming market.

Last month, the company unveiled its new Disney+ streaming service, set to launch in November of this year. The $7 a month streaming platform will include all of Disney's family-friendly classics, 18 of Pixar’s 21 movies, and content from the “Star Wars” franchise and “Avengers” series.

Meanwhile, Disney will use Hulu to provide content that is geared towards adults. The company gained access to content from FX under its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

“We are now able to completely integrate Hulu into our direct-to-consumer business and leverage the full power of The Walt Disney Company’s brands and creative engines to make the service even more compelling and a greater value for consumers,” Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement announcing the agreement.

Being admitted to a hospital ranking lower for preventing accidents, injuries, errors, and infections could greatly increase your chances of not getting out alive.

That’s a principal takeaway from the Leapfrog Group’s annual Hospital Safety Grades. It found that patients in hospitals receiving a “D” or “F” grade were 92 percent more likely to die from an avoidable cause.

The report also found that patients in hospitals receiving a “C” grade were 88 percent more likely to have a patient die an avoidable death. The risk drops to 36 percent for institutions receiving a “B” grade.

While hospitals awarded an “A” grade are not perfectly safe, the researchers found they are getting safer with each passing year. Their report concludes that if every hospital protected against avoidable death at the same rate as “A” hospitals, it would save 50,000 lives annually.

160,000 avoidable deaths

The report found an estimated 160,000 lives were lost in the U.S. in 2017 from avoidable medical errors that are accounted for in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a big improvement from 2016, when researchers estimated there were 205,000 avoidable deaths.

"The good news is that tens of thousands of lives have been saved because of progress on patient safety,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. “The bad news is that there's still a lot of needless death and harm in American hospitals."  

She points to the report’s underlying conclusion, that U.S. hospitals don't all have the same track record when it comes to keeping patients alive.

“So it really matters which hospital people choose, which is the purpose of our Hospital Safety Grade," Binder said.

Very few received a failing grade

The latest study graded more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals, with nearly a third earning an “A” grade. Fortunately, only 1 percent got a failing grade, while 6 percent were rated “D,” or poor. The states with the highest percentage of A-rated hospitals are Oregon with 58 percent, Virginia with 53 percent, Maine with 50 percent, and Massachusetts and Utah with 48 percent.

There were no A-rated hospitals in Wyoming, Arkansas, Washington, DC, Delaware, or North Dakota.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades are an independent, nonprofit grading system administered on behalf of employers and other purchasers of healthcare services. They rate institutions on their ability to avoid errors, accidents, injuries and infections and receive guidance from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

Ford is recalling about 2,700 model year 2019 Ranger trucks.

The two fasteners that secure the transmission shift cable bracket to the transmission housing may not have been torqued to specification.

Over time, an improperly torqued fastener could allow the transmission shift cable bracket to become loose and the transmission to be in a gear state different from the gearshift position selected by the driver.

This condition could allow the driver to remove the ignition key (if equipped) with no instrument panel warning message or chime indicating that the transmission is not in park. This could allow unintended vehicle movement or roll away if the parking brake is not applied, increasing the risk of a crash or injury.

No accidents or injuries related to this condition have been reported.

What to do

Owners should apply the parking brake whenever the vehicle is parked.

Dealers will properly torque the two fasteners and verify the proper operation of the transmission selector assembly according to established workshop manual procedure.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at (866)436-7332. Ford's reference number for this recall is 19S15.

Strategic Sports is recalling 1,956 Motovan Zox Sierra helmets, part number ST-560, in sizes XS, S, M, and L.

The helmet shell may allow an object to penetrate through to the users head. As such, in an event of the crash, the helmet may not protect the occupant, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Strategic Sports has notified the distributors and known owners, and will provide refunds for all consumers returning their helmet.

The recall began May 1, 2019.

Owners may contact Moto customer service at (888) 449-7773 or by email at helmet.recall.info@gmail.com .

Taylor Farms Texas of Dallas, Texas, is recalling approximately 1,079 pounds of Caesar Salad with chicken.

The product contains anchovies, an allergen not declared on the label.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions.

The following ready-to-eat item, produced on May 8, 2019, is being recalled:

• 9.75 oz. clear plastic packages containing “H.E.B. SHAKE, RATTLE & BOWL CAESAR SALAD with CHICKEN” and a “BEST BY” date of MAY 18 2019 represented on the label.

The recalled product, bearing establishment number “EST. P-34733” inside the USDA mark of inspection, was shipped to retail stores in Texas.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, discard or return it to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions about the recall may contact Kelsey Adams at (214) 565-4847.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is amping up its duel with the robocall world.

On Monday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pait summoned major phone companies to implement SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication standards by the end of 2019.

“Consumers want and need reliable caller ID information. That’s why we must move aggressively to combat spoofed robocalls,” said Chairman Pai.

“I’ve repeatedly demanded that major voice service providers implement a strong call authentication framework this year. I want to hear from them on the progress they’ve made toward meeting this goal. We chose this industry-led path because it is the fastest way to help consumers, but I remain committed to taking regulatory action -- action for which we’ve already laid the groundwork -- if major carriers do not implement the SHAKEN/STIR framework this year.”

This could take awhile

Already on board are Verizon and the tag team of Comcast and AT&T, but Pai apparently wants to see more action and will host a summit on July 11, 2019, to examine the telecommunication industry’s progress. The summit will also include some show-and-tell, wherein telecom providers can help peer companies that have come up against challenges in setting up the SHAKEN/STIR framework.

The telecom industry has been dragging its feet on this matter for a couple of years. The Commission originally laid the groundwork for regulations with its formal Notice of Inquiry adopted in July 2017.

Even if all boxes get checked off by the end of 2019, a regulatory process will probably take another year. Plus, the FCC and the telecom companies will still have to tackle what specific standards should be adopted, not to mention the time necessary to defend any related litigation.

Looking for some peace of mind?

Implementing Caller ID authentication will hopefully give consumers some peace of mind from the robocall curse and other malicious scams -- and it’s not too soon in coming, either.

Caller ID spoofing -- in which a scammer alters the information transferred to a consumer’s caller ID display to mask their true identity -- has been around since 2004 and has been the culprit behind an assortment of scams ranging from Paris Hilton being accused of voicemail hacking to purchase scams on Craigslist and eBay. At the heart of the SHAKEN/STIR system is the ability to fend off this illegal practice.

“It will become a reality when phone companies adopt matching standards for how calls are signed as legitimate and how that authentication signature is reliably passed along from carrier to carrier until it gets to the consumer, who will be able to know such a call is likely authentic,” the FCC wrote in a news release.

“Additionally, consumers and law enforcement alike could more readily identify the source of illegal robocalls and reduce their impact.”

Joining the FCC in the battle is Apple. In late 2018, the company filed a patent designed to detect spoofing on its iPhones.

A couple in California has been awarded $2 billion in damages after a jury decided that glyphosate was the cause of the cancer affecting both plaintiffs.

The case is the third in less than a year accusing Bayer of willfully concealing the risks of the key ingredient in its popular Roundup herbicide. As in the cases before it, the latest charges were brought by plaintiffs who had used Roundup for decades.

On Monday, a jury in Alameda County Superior Court found that glyphosate was the cause of the non-Hodgkin lymphoma in both Alva and Alberta Pilliod, who have used the product since the 1970s.

“The cloud hanging over Bayer will only grow bigger and darker, as more juries hear how Monsanto manipulated its own research, colluded with regulators and intimidated scientists to keep secret the cancer risks from glyphosate,” Environmental Working Group (EWG) President Ken Cook said in a statement.

Bayer says it will appeal

Bayer has maintained through every trial that “hundreds of studies” indicate that its popular weed killing product does not cause cancer when used as directed. In a statement, Bayer said it is “disappointed with the jury’s decision and will appeal the verdict in this case.”

“We have great sympathy for Mr. and Mrs. Pilliod, but the evidence in this case was clear that both have long histories of illnesses known to be substantial risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), most NHL has no known cause, and there is not reliable scientific evidence to conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides were the “but for” cause of their illnesses as the jury was required to find in this case,” the company said.

To date, more than 13,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against Bayer-Monsanto. In February, California resident Edwin Hardeman won a lawsuit alleging that the active ingredient in Roundup caused his cancer. Six months prior to that, a jury found Bayer responsible for causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who regularly used Roundup.

Each jury said Bayer had failed to warn consumers about the risks of the product and its controversial main ingredient.

Glyphosate and cancer risk

Earlier this year, a meta-analysis based on the results of six earlier studies on glyphosate found that the herbicide increases the cancer risk of heavily exposed individuals by 41 percent.

"All of the meta-analyses conducted to date, including our own, consistently report the same key finding: exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) are associated with an increased risk of NHL," the authors of the University of Washington report wrote.

“From a population health point of view, there are some real concerns,” said Lianne Sheppard, one of the study’s co-authors.

Glyphosate is currently the most heavily used herbicide in the world. In addition to being used as a weedkiller and sprayed on farmland, the product gets into food. A pair of laboratory tests commissioned by the EWG found glyphosate in nearly every sample of popular oat-based cereals and other oat-based food marketed to children.

Twitter has disclosed that it may have inadvertently shared location data on some users who had not specifically authorized it.

The social media company said that in some cases location data from a user’s account could have been shared, even if the user had not authorized the sharing. The bug only affected iOS users and only those iOS users who had more than one Twitter account.

Affected users have been notified of the bug and the possibility that location data was shared with a third party.

“Due to a bug in Twitter for iOS, we inadvertently collected and shared location data (at the zip code or city level),” the company said in a tweet. “We have fixed the bug, but we wanted to make sure we shared more of the context around this with you. More here.”

According to Twitter, the bug only affected iOS users who had more than one account and had activated the “shared location” feature on at least one of the accounts. Twitter says the platform might have collected location data for the other accounts, even though permission had not been given.

Use for marketing purposes

That location data might have then been shared with a Twitter partner, who paid for it so it could be used for marketing purposes. Twitter says the location data was not that precise and could have been limited to a five-kilometer square mile area.

“That means the data could not be used to determine an address or to map your precise movements,” the company said in a statement.

When receiving the location data, the third party partner did not have the information that could have allowed it to identify whose data it was receiving. Twitter assured impacted users that the third party company did not retain the location data it received.

Data was not retained

“We have confirmed with our partner that the location data has not been retained and that it only existed in their systems for a short time, and was then deleted as part of their normal process,” the company said. “We have fixed this problem and are working hard to make sure it does not happen again.”

Twitter said it has been in contact with users whose accounts were affected to reassure them that the bug has been fixed. The company said affected users should check their privacy settings to make sure they are only sharing the data they want to.

Twitter did not say when the unauthorized data-sharing took place and how long it continued.

A group of hackers exploited a flaw in the WhatsApp messaging app to install surveillance tools on an unknown number of users’ phones, The Financial Times reported Monday.

The publication identified the hackers as an Israeli cyberintelligence company known as NSO Group. WhatsApp said the group has "all the hallmarks of a private company known to work with governments to deliver spyware."

“We have briefed a number of human rights organizations to share the information we can, and to work with them to notify civil society,” WhatsApp told the Financial Times, adding that it disclosed the issue to the Justice Department last week.

The hackers were able to install spyware on users’ phones simply by calling them. A user’s device could be injected with the spyware even if they missed the call, and often, the call would disappear from the phone’s call log.

Once installed, the surveillanceware is capable of turning on a phone’s camera and microphone, scanning emails and messages, and collecting the user’s location data.

Vulnerability fixed in latest update

Facebook said in a security advisory that the WhatsApp hack stemmed from a “buffer overflow” attack.

“A buffer overflow vulnerability in WhatsApp VOIP stack allowed remote code execution via specially crafted series of SRTCP packets sent to a target phone number,” according to the advisory.

“The issue affects WhatsApp for Android prior to v2.19.134, WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.19.44, WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.19.51, WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.19.51, WhatsApp for Windows Phone prior to v2.18.348, and WhatsApp for Tizen prior to v2.18.15.,” the advisory continued.

The Facebook-owned messaging service released a patch for the security vulnerability on Monday and is urging users to upgrade to the latest version of the app.

“WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices,” WhatsApp said in a statement. “We are constantly working alongside industry partners to provide the latest security enhancements to help protect our users.”