By Teresa Murray | Point of View
To celebrate Consumer Protection Week this year, the Arizona PIRG Education Fund decided to focus on everyday issues facing residents across our state, and provide tips to protect yourself and your household.
Data privacy protection. Companies often ask for information they need to provide you with their service; however, many gather more information about you than they really need. When companies collect and sell data about you, they increase the odds your information will be exposed in a breach or a hack, making you more likely to fall victim to identity theft.
Our tips: Why privacy matters even if you’ve got nothing to hide.
Medical billing and credit reports. Nearly one in 10 people in the United States have medical debt of which nearly 11 million people owe more than $2,000 and three million people owe more than $10,000. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering ways to protect people with medical debt from the harmful effects of a negative credit report.
Our tips: Medical bills and your consumer rights.
Robocalls and robotexts. Robocalls and robotexts remain the No. 1 consumer complaint to the Federal Communications Commission, and fraud (which often starts with scam calls) is the No. 1 complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. At the end of last year, the FCC adopted robotext rules. And last month, the FCC ruled to prohibit robocalls using artificial intelligence.
Our tips: How to stop robocalls and robotexts and avoid scams.
Right to repair. Consumers have been spending more and more on electronics and appliances, while product lifespans have been shrinking. In part, these factors have given rise to the Right to Repair movement, which calls on manufacturers to remove barriers and provide consumers with the option to fix products from smartphones and tablets to farm tractors, motorized wheelchairs, and medical devices to avoid having to prematurely replace them.
Our latest Failing the Fix scorecard helps consumers identify which laptop and cell phone brands support repair.
Product safety. The Arizona PIRG Education Fund’s new analysis, Safe At Home in 2024, documents that there were 323 announcements about defective appliances, furniture, bike helmets, toys and other everyday products in 2023. The value of the recalled products was between $12.9 billion and $24.6 billion.
Our tips: Find out about product recalls.
Airline passenger protections. If you traveled by air last year, or talked with anyone who did, you know airplanes were typically packed, delays were common and trips were often stressful. The U.S. Department of Transportation is considering new rules to require airlines to reimburse travelers for hotels, meals, and rebooking when the airline is responsible for a cancellation or significant delay that strands customers.
Our tips: Airline travel tips.
Protecting ourselves from consumer rip-offs and scams needs to be part of the daily routine of Arizonans. It will continue to be part of ours.
Editor’s Note: Teresa Murray is the Consumer Watchdog Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund.
