The world of cryptocurrency has fallen from most of the headlines, but there are still several people out there with millions at stake. A US investor & entrepreneur is suing AT&T, his internet service provider, over a theft of his cryptocurrency. Michael Terpin is seeking $224M, the value of his crypto portfolio at the time. The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles court room and claims “digital identity theft” in an attempt to hold someone (or something) accountable for the loss of his tokens. Today, the cryptocurrency market cap is over $200B, led by main coins such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Stellar. Continue reading
Tag Archives: at&t
Time to Go Mobile as Judge Rules Against NSA
More than a few years ago, the term “phone-mining” probably meant nothing to anyone. Nowadays, it has become one of the most controversial topics all over the United States, including our federal courts. A recent ruling states that the acquisition of data through mobile phones, including cell phone numbers and and timestamps, is unconstitutional. The case itself, Klayman v. Obama (13-cv-881), was heard in Washington D.C. under Judge Richard Leon. This private collection of data was leaked by former NSA contractor and controversial figure Edward Snowden, who is currently living in Russia under temporary asylum. Read more
AT&T Offers to Settle over Limiting Unlimited Plans, Is Ignored
Via AP: When smartphones first came on the market, telephone companies offered “unlimited” data plans cheaply in an effort to attract users. Back then, there were so few smartphones, and even fewer users who used more than a couple of gigabytes of data, that advertising these unlimited plans would mean a great many people would buy them without using much data at all. As smartphones became more ubiquitous and easier-to-use, though, the number of heavy users on unlimited plans rose to the point where they outnumbered regular users, and it was no longer profitable to sustain truly unlimited use. Then, AT&T did something incredibly boneheaded: they started capping data use for certain unlimited plans. In a textbook “do not do this” move, AT&T throttled the service for the top 5% of users, or slowed it down until phones were rendered nearly useless for anything other than calls and texts. This varied by area, too. The top 5% in New York City would be using a vastly different amount of data than the top 5% in Middle-of-Nowhere, Kansas. Many customers subsequently sued AT&T for false advertising. Rightfully so, because I can’t imagine “unlimited” to mean anything other than “not limited at all”. AT&T has since announced that it will be throttling data at 3GBs/month for all unlimited users, not just the top 5%, which brought up yet another problem: limited users pay $30/month for 3GB of data, the same as so-called “unlimited” plans. All in all, AT&T’s handling of the affair has been a major clusterwhoops.