Jeff Gelles reports: If you’ve ever seen “Flo,” the cheerfully offbeat cashier in Progressive Insurance’s ad campaign, you probably know her shtick: that when it comes to auto insurance, Progressive strives to be a little bit different, too. But Progressive’s latest attempt to distinguish itself in Pennsylvania – a plan to offer rates based on…
Category: Business
Tesco fined for sending junk e-mail By Andrew Phelan
Andrew Phelan reports: Tesco has been convicted of breaching Data Protections laws by sending unsolicited marketing emails to customers. The supermarket giant was fined €2,000 at Dublin District Court after it pleaded guilty to four counts of sending mails to customers who had indicated that they did not wish to receive them. Tesco Ireland has…
FTC Warns Gay Youth Site About Sale of Personal Data
Grant Gross reports: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has warned two people associated with a now-defunct magazine and Web site for gay teens and young men that they would violate the privacy promises the publication made to subscribers by selling their personal information during a bankruptcy proceeding. The FTC, in a letter sent earlier this…
Ohio collects millions selling driving records with your personal information
Joe Guillen reports: The state of Ohio has collected millions of dollars selling records with your name, address, driver’s license number and other personal information so it can be used in all sorts of ways, from crafting insurance policies to screening job candidates. Since 2005, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has sold more than 1.39…