Monthly Archives: December 2017

Amazon Named in Facebook Lawsuit

Out of the box thinking?

Amazon.com Inc was named in a lawsuit involving super-specific targeted advertising on the popular social media platform, Facebook. The lawsuit accuses Amazon of trying to show ads to a certain age group, those younger than 38, which is within Facebook’s targeting capabilities. While Facebook is not named in the lawsuit, this has been seen as an example of age discrimination, limiting the number of “older” people who would be able to apply for those open positions. Many ad platforms allow segmented targeting options, including age and gender. Also named in the lawsuit were 2 large scale internet/TV/phone providers, T-Mobile and Cox Communications. Read More

Woman Charged for Bad Hotel Review

Negativity never pays

We have all had sub-par experiences at a restaurant or hotel, and some of us may have even gone online and left a negative review. What happens when a hotel threatens legal action over your feedback? Katrina Arthur of Indiana saw an additional $350 charge on her debit card after posting a bad review about a hotel, and also received a letter from the hotel’s lawyer, threatening legal action. The Indiana Attorney General’s office caught wind of the charge and legal threat, and fired back with a lawsuit against the hotel itself. The AG claims that a $350 charge would violate the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. Read More

United We Stand, Divided We Settle

A long legal battle ends in a truce

The 5-year legal dispute between a former Minnesota Governor and the deceased American Sniper has finally settled. Following the publication of Chris Kyle’s autobiography, in 2012, Jesse Ventura filed a lawsuit against Kyle. Even after Kyle’s unfortunate passing in 2013, Ventura continued his legal pursuit against Kyle’s estate. Ventura argues that a particular passage in Kyle’s book is defamatory, and damaged his reputation within the Navy SEAL community. Continue reading →

Cryptic: IRS Sues Bitcoin Exchange Portal

BTC vs IRS

With Bitcoin becoming a hot button issue over the last few months, the IRS was recently awarded some good news. Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase was ordered to turn over the data for all US consumers who purchased Bitcoin and other currencies between 2013 and 2015. The belief is that many of these people did not pay any tax on potential earnings. This would make them subject to potential auditing, as a Judge in California has ruled. Information for more than 14,000 people was handed over from Coinbase to the IRS. Bitcoin is the main form of cryptocurrency, a digital asset that is openly bought, sold, and held online with an ever-changing dollar value. Read More