Article suggestions: Difference between revisions

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!Company

|Charges excessively high brokerage fees disguised as "customs fees" that exceed shipping costs when mailing a product from the US to Canada; sent person in source a $42.60 bill AFTER delivering the package, without the person being informed of the shipper being UPS.

|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Runkle Of The Bailey |date=Nov 14, 2024 |title=I Fought UPS' Bogus Brokerage Fees, And Won |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKju9a4lA5I |access-date=Jun 26, 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref>

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|[[Yubo]]

|Silicon Valley startup that received more than $100 million in funding from investors such as Google and Campbell's Soup. Produced a juicer which was sold for $700 (later $400). Device required a Wi-Fi connection and mobile app in order to use and only accepted "produce packs" sold exclusively by Juicero. Said produce packs had short shelf lives, required the machine to scan a QR code to process, and could be remotely disabled (for instance, if a component item was recalled). Packs were capable of being squeezed by hand (yielding slightly more juice in less time) as demonstrated in an infamous Bloomberg video, which led to the company offering refunds for its juicer. Suspended all operations and (again) offered refunds on September 1st, 2017.<!-- an early example of what this wiki calls "new consumer issues" before they became widely accepted -->

|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Levin |first=Sam |date=2017-09-01 |title=Squeezed out: widely mocked startup Juicero is shutting down {{!}} Silicon Valley {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901233738/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down |archive-date=2017-09-01 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Carson |first=Biz |date=2017-04-20 |title=Juicero Offers Refund For Squeezing Juice Packets |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/juicero-offers-refund-for-squeezing-juice-packets-2017-4 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421033635/http://www.businessinsider.com/juicero-offers-refund-for-squeezing-juice-packets-2017-4 |archive-date=2017-04-21 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Business Insider}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Huet |first=Ellen |last2=Zaleski |first2=Olivia |date=2017-04-19 |title=Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429015614/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze |archive-date=2017-04-29 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Bloomberg}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Reilly |first=Claire |date=2018-09-08 |title=Juicero is still the greatest example of Silicon Valley stupidity |url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/juicero-is-still-the-greatest-example-of-silicon-valley-stupidity/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241104015047/https://www.cnet.com/culture/juicero-is-still-the-greatest-example-of-silicon-valley-stupidity/ |archive-date=2024-11-04 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=CNET}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kolodny |first=Lora |date=2025-09-01 |title=The tech start-up that made a $700 juicing machine has shut down |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/01/the-tech-start-up-that-made-a-700-juicing-machine-has-shut-down.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905084642/https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/01/the-tech-start-up-that-made-a-700-juicing-machine-has-shut-down.html |archive-date=2017-09-05 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=CNBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mihalcik |first=Carrie |date=2017-09-01 |title=Juicero shuts down, offers refunds |url=https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/juicero-shuts-down-offers-refunds/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250702172950/https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/juicero-shuts-down-offers-refunds/ |archive-date=2025-07-02 |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=CNET}}</ref>

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|Foxit Reader

|CCSF in their eligibility form requires high school students to agree to a User Agreement which includes waiving their FERPA rights to inspecting otherwise confidential information that the foundation collects throughout the scholarship process, including sensitive information such as home addresses and financial status.

|<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 Aug 2025 |title=Eligibility Quiz (click SUBMIT) |url=https://webportalapp.com/sp/task_item_primary_print/ccsf?item_id=1 |url-status=live |access-date=24 Aug 2025 |website=Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation}}</ref><!-- I was unable to archive the page due to it requiring a login. -->

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|[[H&R Block]]

|Marketing paid products as free, deleting users' tax data upon downgrading to free versions, and forcing users to contact support to get access to the free version of the tax filing software. FTC alleges coercive and obstructive techniques are used to make users pay for services they don't need as well.

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|The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 3d printer has been proven to use open source Klipper software which requires them to publish their changes to the code.

|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-28 |title=PSA: Elegoo Centauri Carbon & GPL Compliance |url=https://freethecode.lol/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=PSA: Elegoo Centauri Carbon & GPL Compliance}}</ref>

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|iRobot

|Mitsubishi Motors has a rich history of consumer protection, compliance issues and privacy breaches. These include concealing safety defects, falsifying fuel economy data, and being fined for false advertising. Following the trend of subscription services for the automotive industry, Mitsubishi paywalls built-in features including remote start, SOS, collision detection, and car tracking through its app Mitsubishi Connect subscription service.

|[https://www.autoevolution.com/news/mitsubishi-fined-42-million-by-japans-consumer-affairs-agency-115026.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] [https://leakd.com/leaks/mitsubishi-motors-vietnam-customer-data-breached/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Motors?utm_source=chatgpt.com] [https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?order=pen_year&parent=mitsubishi-motors&sort=&utm_source=chatgpt.com][https://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/newsroom/newsrelease/2017/20171129_3.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com]

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|[[Hikvision]]

|In a new lawsuit, an ex-engineer alleges that 1500 engineers had unrestricted access to WhatsApp user data and that the company "failed to remedy the hacking and takeover of more than 100,000 accounts each day, ignoring his pleas and proposed fixes and choosing instead to prioritize user growth". (ongoing)

|[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/08/meta-user-data-lawsuit-whatsapp]

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|EcoVac

A similar problem exists with Doremi (Dolby) cinema projectors where their DRM leads to a ridiculous number of actions breaking the so-called "marriage" (projector-media block unity), requiring a costly technician to reset it. This one needs sources researched, though, as I don't have one on hand.

|<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uCpY3tFTIA}}</ref>

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|Apple App Store

|Slack threatened to deactivate the Slack workspace and delete all message history of a nonprofit unless they agreed to a price hike of $200k yearly and also pay an extra $50k within a week. There were no prior warnings from Slack. A few years prior to this incident, they had agreed to migrate from the free nonprofit plan to a $5k per year plan.

|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-09-18 |title=Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase |url=https://skyfall.dev/posts/slack |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250930075808/https://skyfall.dev/posts/slack |archive-date=2025-09-30}}</ref>

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|[[Cloudary Holdings Limited / Webnovel]]

|Two years after taking over competitor Neato, Vorwerk closed down the Neato cloud services. Vacuum robots lose all app functionality and can only be started manually, which will cause them to do a full clean. No off-limits zones, no rooms, no barriers, only everything or nothing. Neato robots are not supported by Valetudo.

|<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://support.neatorobotics.com/support/solutions/articles/204000073686}}</ref>

==List of themes not yet covered==

Why include: Advertising is pervasive online, and increasingly showing up in devices.  Many sources, including US government agencies, suggest ad block as a way of enhancing security.  Ad block can help consumers own their own devices by controlling what they do.  There are efforts to use copyright law (e.g., DMCA/spotify/revanced, and German court case) to force you to run  programs on your device.  See also, [[Advertising overload]]

|[https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/german_court_ruling_ad_blocking/]

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|[[Cloud]]