customer

Google has built an app that will stop smartphones working if a customer is behind on payments for the handset. It could also be a way to make more expensive phones available to people with poor credit histories. The app is already being used by a ... carrier in Kenya. There's no word yet on whether Google plans to offer it to carriers in other countries. (Source: 9to5google.com ) "Device Lock Controller" is an app that can be pre-installed by carriers on new phones. It appears that once the app is in place, the carrier is able to remotely reinstall the app even if the customer removes it. If and ... (view more)

A newly-publicized take on a long-running scam involves on-screen messages that falsely appear to be from a user's Internet service provider. It's a trick with a variety of ways to profit from the customer. For many years, scammers have been calling ... people on the telephone claiming to work for Microsoft or other computer companies, saying the person receiving the call has a virus. The scammer will then usually try to get the victim to pay for bogus tech support services. While most people realize it's a scam, the idea is to call enough people so that even a small percentage of ... (view more)

Google is offering advertisers a new service based around customer email addresses. It won't mean users will receive more spam emails, but may be considered a misuse of email list advertising. The service is called Customer Match. It involves ... advertisers uploading a list of email addresses to Google (for example, a company's mailing list); in turn, Google will then check that list against its own database of people who have signed up for a Google account. If there's a match between the two email addresses, it will then run advertisements for the company when the relevant person is ... (view more)

AT&T will pay a $25 million fine after regulators held it responsible for thieves taking personal details of 280,000 customers. The breaches were said to have occurred around November 2013 and April 2014, with the FCC beginning its investigation ... around May of 2014. It's the biggest ever such fine in the communications industry. The stolen information included the customers' names, part or all of their social security numbers, and some details about their account. On its own, the data wouldn't be enough for criminals to immediately steal money from customer's bank accounts, but could ... (view more)

Microsoft has signed up to an international standard for protecting customer privacy with online data. Among other measures, Microsoft promises to tell customers when the government demands access to their data. The company has followed ISO standard ... number 27018, which are guidelines set forth by the International Organization for Standardization. It's an attempt to set internationally recognized rules and regulations for the way "personally identifiable information" is handled in cloud services, and where data is stored or processed online rather than on the user's own computer ... (view more)

Comcast has been embarrassed yet again by a recording of a call to its customer service team. This time, a representative was caught trying to charge a Comcast customer for repairs , despite the company already promising the work would be done free ... of charge. Last month, Comcast came under fire when another customer repeatedly tried to cancel his Comcast service over the telephone. During the recording, which reportedly lasted eighteen minutes, the customer service representative repeatedly badgered the customer and demanded to know why he wanted to cancel his service. The audio recording was ... (view more)