In an FTC settlement, Apple has agreed to refund $32.5 million of in app purchase that were un authorized by parents by made by children due to a 15 minute window when kids could buy "things" that were charged to iTunes credit cars.
iPhones are expensive and often after paying for it on a two-year contract, it would be nice to unlock it from a carrier and use it with another carrier or plan. Currently, Apple defers all requests for unlocking iPhones to the carriers. Getting an unlocking code from a carrier for an iPhone can be difficult. Policies can require jumping through lots of hoops. After pressure from the FCC, carriers today officially confirmed to the FCC and through the CTIA that they have reached an agreement for industry wide cell phone unlocking protocols.
Chairman Tom Wheeler at the FCC sent an open letter to the wireless industry, last month encouraging them to adopt voluntary guidelines.
Do you think your Verizon Wireless bill is too high? Protestors in Santa Monica, today, protested not about the high bills themselves but that Verizon does not pay corporate taxes.
Protestors claimed to be "outing" corporate tax dodgers and their allies in Congress by asking them to pay their fair share at the Santa Monica Verizon Wireless store at 26th Street and Wilshire Blvd.
CTIA is no longer holding its conventions in the city by the bay because it had a law that required cell phone sellers to post signs warning of the risks of the phone's radiation. San Francisco will not enforce radiation cell phone warning signs after a lawsuit was filed by CTIA.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to accept a permanent injunction against the right-to-know cell phone law that would warn buyers of cell phones that could cause cancer. CTIA proposed that warning placards would "confuse" consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission is fighting against marketers that bombarded consumers with unwanted spam text messages linked to websites falsely promising “free” gift cards.
FTC charged 29 defendants with collectively sending more than 180 million unwanted text messages to consumers, many of whom had to pay for receiving the texts.