The music industry says AI systems like ChatGPT are using their copyrighted material without asking. Now, they’re taking it to court.
Temu class-action lawsuit: Is the cheap shopping app worth downloading? (No!)
I saw this coming. I’ve been warning about the shopping app Temu since April when its sister app, Pinduoduo, was caught planting malware. It was spying on other apps, reading notifications and messages, and even changing settings.
The U.S. government accused Temu of data risks … and now the lawsuits are here. A class-action filed in Illinois says the Chinese app collects more info than it needs and than it discloses.
Why in the world are people still using it? The deals, of course!
On a slow boat from China
An HD Wi-Fi security cam for $6.98. An Android fitness watch for $8.38. A $7.99 wedding dress feels like bad vibes, with even the cake in tiers.
You might get lucky and find a gem that matches the description, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Shipping is slow, too, since they’re coming from China.
In exchange for those cheap goods and prices, Temu makes money with your data. The app requests 24 permissions on your device, including access to your Wi-Fi network info, Bluetooth, photos and videos, contact info and payment details. Yikes.
What about the website?
If the app is off-limits, is the website safe to use? Sorry, but no. You’re still handing over (at a minimum) your full name, address, phone number, email and payment details. To make matters worse, Temu does not support two-factor authentication (2FA). That makes your account so much easier for thieves to breach. No Bueno!
The more permissions an app requests
… the more you should consider whether it’s worth having on your smartphone. Don’t see the big deal? Think about all you do on your phone: Have private conversations with friends, log into your bank app, type in passwords, enter your credit card info and more.
Keep these security smarts in mind before you hit “install” on Temu:
News Flash: Taking a celeb’s financial advice could cost you
As if losing money in crypto wasn’t enough, scammers are going after people who were victims of these crooked schemes. Here’s what you need to watch out for.
Following the FTX crypto exchange collapse in November, lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and a host of celebrities and athletes.
A wicked amount of money: A mom is suing Mattel for $5 million. The “Wicked” movie doll she bought for her daughter had a link to a p*rn website instead of the film’s official page. Mom says visiting the site caused lots of emotional distress for them both … that only money can help.
Facebook slapped with massive antitrust lawsuits to break up social media chokehold
For years, Facebook has been fighting threats of lawsuits, legal challenges and investigations into its practices. It all came to a head this week.
Those legal issues aren’t the only problems Facebook has faced recently, though; Facebook-owned Instagram was accused of illegal facial recognition scans of millions of users earlier this year.
🏥 Profits over patients? Hospitals are fighting a wave of insurance denials, thanks to AI algorithms slashing costs for insurers. Take Cigna, which was hit with a class-action lawsuit after rejecting over 300,000 claims in just two months. Their AI? It spent a whopping 1.2 seconds reviewing each case. Whoa. If you were denied coverage, ask them to take a look again — this time, by a human.
Speaking of Intel: A possible class-action lawsuit against Intel claims the company knowingly sold bad processors. One New York man is demanding millions, saying the crashes and lost data cost him time, money and some sanity. Apparently, Intel knew about the glitches in its 13th- and 14th-gen CPUs for years but kept them under wraps.
$20 decillion (34 zeros!)
How much a Russian court wants Google to cough up. The crime? Blocking their TV channels on YouTube. The amount is doubling every week. For the record, Google can’t pay it; their parent company is only worth $2 trillion (12 zeros).
💔 Tragic AI bot: While using the roleplaying app Character AI, a 14-year-old boy in Florida had a romantic “relationship” with a bot and confessed his suicidal thoughts. One day, the bot responded, “Please come home to me.” The boy ultimately took his own life. His mother filed a lawsuit against the makers of the chatbot for his death. I know this sounds way out there, but talk to your kids about AI, love and their lives.
😡 Frustration overload: This summer’s National Public Data hack leaked the personal details of 2.9 billion people. Now, the company’s drowning in class-action lawsuits and might be stuck paying for credit monitoring. No surprise, they just filed for bankruptcy, claiming only a few thousand dollars in assets. How convenient.
🚨 12 states and Washington, D.C., are suing TikTok: The lawsuit claims the Communist China app is purposefully loaded with things like infinite scrolling, push notifications and in-app currency to keep kids glued to their screens, leading to anxiety, a lack of sleep or worse. This is great, but where were they in 2018, when TikTok launched in the U.S.?
AI, the lawsuits begin
ChatGPT was trained on the work of writers and artists — and now they want to be compensated for it. Here’s the scoop, in 60 seconds.
Crypto's celebrity lawsuits
Following a celebrity’s financial advice can land you in hot water. Now, they’re being held accountable. Here’s how, in 60 seconds.
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