Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 26, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Commerce
The Boomer Stuff Avalanche
Business Insider ungated – “Millennials are about to be crushed by all the junk their parents accumulated…In some ways, this is a timeless problem — every generation accumulates things, and younger generations rebel against older generations’ tastes. But the sheer size of the current problem is unprecedented given that baby boomers are an extra-materialistic breed.… Continue Reading
15 Best Amazon Alternatives For Ethical Online Shopping
goodgoodgood [June 2022] Amazon, the company that catapulted founder Jeff Bezos to billionaire status (and to the edge of space), has long been touted as environmentally unfriendly; the company emits the same level of carbon emissions as the country of Norway, according to a report released by Amazon in 2019. Its impact on the environment,… Continue Reading
VISA Biannual Threat Report Fall 2024
This report provides an overview of the top payments ecosystem threats within the past six-month period (January – June 2024) as identified by Visa Payment Fraud Disruption (PFD). In the December 2023 Biannual Report, Visa PFD noted an interesting shift in threat actors’ organization, access to tools, and target choice, with threat actors increasing in… Continue Reading
Anthropic’s new AI model can control your PC
TechCrunch: “In a pitch to investors last spring, Anthropic said it intended to build AI to power virtual assistants that could perform research, answer emails, and handle other back-office jobs on their own. The company referred to this as a “next-gen algorithm for AI self-teaching” — one it believed that could, if all goes according… Continue Reading
Musk and the federal government
Via Next Draft: What’s in it for Musk (and a handful of other billionaires funding the entire Trump operation)? Well, let’s narrow the answer down to this: Everything. Franklin Foer in The Atlantic( Gift Article): What Elon Musk Really Wants. “Many other titans of Silicon Valley have tethered themselves to Trump. But Musk is the… Continue Reading
ReportFraud.ftc.gov
Protect your community by reporting fraud, scams, and bad business practices The power of ReportFraud.ftc.gov Your report is shared with more than 2,800 law enforcers. We can’t resolve your individual report, but we use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices Start your report now Continue Reading
How to find helpful content in a sea of made-for-Google BS
HouseFresh: “Uncovering the tactics used by big media content farms, SEO pattern makers, content thieves and AI slop creators to fool Google’s enshittified algorithm (so you don’t fall for them, too). At the beginning of 2024, we said Google was killing independent sites with its bias towards established media outlets, even in cases where these… Continue Reading
FTC Final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule Making It Easier to End Recurring Subscriptions, Memberships
“The Federal Trade Commission today announced a final “click-to-cancel” rule that will require sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. Most of the final rule’s provisions will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register. “Too often, businesses make… Continue Reading
Guide to effective searching on ebay
Thread by derek guy via Twitter – I want to show you how to get some deals on eBay. Since I write about menswear, this thread will be focused on men’s clothing and accessories. But my guess is that you can apply these tricks to other categories…So my first tip is that you should learn… Continue Reading
FTC Findings on Commercial Surveillance Can Lead to Better Alternatives
EFF: “On September 19, the FTC published a staff report following a multi-year investigation of nine social media and video streaming companies. The report found a myriad of privacy violations to consumers stemming largely from the ad-revenue based business models of companies including Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) which prompted unbridled consumer surveillance practices.… Continue Reading
How to Spot a Bad Prime Day Deal
Gizmodo: “We are all better off being more savvy consumers. When Amazon’s big shopping holiday, Prime Day, rolls around—now twice a year—we’re doubly incentivized to not fall for any bad deals. Prime Day is routinely subsumed with dishonest sales exacerbated thanks to a heavy dose of FOMO, or “fear of missing out.” Getting an honest… Continue Reading
