Consumer Watchdog
non-profit | |
Purpose | taxpayer and consumer advocacy |
---|---|
Location | |
Region served | United States |
President | Jamie Court |
Website | www.consumerwatchdog.org |
Consumer Watchdog (formerly the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights) is a
interests, with a focus on insurance, health care, political reform, privacy and energy.The organization was founded in 1985 by California Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield[1] and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Its chief officers include President Jamie Court[2] and Executive Director Carmen Balber.[3]
Early history
After lobbying with consumer advocate Ralph Nader on a number of issues including campaign finance reform and nuclear power proliferation, Rosenfield founded Consumer Watchdog in 1985.[4]
Later, Rosenfield and Nader campaigned against California Proposition 51 (1986), an insurance-industry-backed initiative on the California ballot in 1986 that limited damage claims on lawsuits.
Though Proposition 51 passed, Rosenfield continued to work for insurance rate reductions at his newly formed public interest group. Rosenfield believed insurance regulation was the only solution to rising insurance rates in California. In response, Rosenfield drafted new insurance reform legislation, which insurance industry lobbyists defeated in the state capital.[5]
Issues
Insurance reform
Proposition 103
In 1987, Rosenfield began to write a ballot box proposal to regulate California property and casualty insurance companies and formed a campaign to sponsor it called Voter Revolt. The proposal turned into insurance reform Proposition 103 and promised voters a minimum 20% rollback in rates for property, auto and other kinds of insurance. The measure required auto insurers to base auto insurance premiums primarily on a policyholder's driving safety record, annual mileage driven and years driving experience. Proposition 103 also made the California Insurance Commissioner an elected official, subjected insurers to California's antitrust laws, civil rights laws and unfair business competition law. It also included a provision for "intervenor fees," which has resulted in payments to Rosenfield and his organizations of more than $6 million.[citation needed]
Voter Revolt operated on a $2.9 million budget, a fraction of the insurance industry's $63 million lobbying and advertising effort. The insurance industry, fearing they would not be able to defeat Proposition 103, launched three competing initiative measures in an attempt to confuse voters.[6]
To bring attention to his cause, Rosenfield used publicity stunts like having guards accompany him while he delivered the signatures that got Proposition 103 on the ballot. As well, the group attempted to deliver truckloads of
Following this campaign, along with canvassing and the endorsement of Ralph Nader, the initiative was passed in November 1988. Since then, Consumer Watchdog has defended Proposition 103 from insurance industry challenges[
Proposition 17
During 2010, Consumer Watchdog opposed Proposition 17, a ballot measure sponsored by
Healthcare reform
HMO patients' rights
In 1994, during the
In 1998, Consumer Watchdog advocated for legislation, ultimately signed into law by California Governor Gray Davis, to extend broad need rights to HMO patients. To bring attention to the issue, the group dumped a truck load of pinto beans at an HMO industry conference to emphasize Consumer Watchdog's opposition to HMO "bean counters" overriding doctors' decisions.[13] Most of the legislative package later passed with the help of the California Nurses Association in November 1998.[14]
Many of the provisions of California's bill were included in the national
Prescription drug costs
During the 2004 election, Consumer Watchdog chartered two private trains, which they called "the Rx Express", to take seniors to
The Rx Express train trips generated more than three hundred television appearances, with a
The provision of prescription drug benefits to seniors became a central issue in the election and ultimately translated to an expansion of Medicare.[15]
In 2009, Consumer Watchdog launched with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa the LARx Prescriptions Savings Card Program, a citywide card program that provides discounts on all pharmaceutical medications and is open to all interested individuals with eligibility restrictions. Consumer Watchdog developed the program with the City of Los Angeles.[16][17]
HMO care for new mothers
Consumer Watchdog lobbied Congress to ban what the group called “drive-through deliveries,” hospitals forcing mothers to be discharged after 8 hours. The group exposed a Kaiser Permanente memo to the media, which displayed controversial remarks about why newborn mothers should be discharged in that amount of time. A number of news agencies picked up on the story, and congressional hearings followed. Congress later passed a law requiring that newborns and their mothers not be discharged from the hospital any sooner than forty-eight hours without their consent.[16]
Energy regulation
In 1998, the group co-sponsored Proposition 9, a ballot initiative to block aspects of the
The group also runs Oil Watchdog, a blog and resource library about the practices of the US oil industry. Leading up to the
Political reform
In 2003, Consumer Watchdog launched Arnold Watch to expose what they asserted to be Governor
The group also helped expose what they asserted to be former Senate majority leader
Stem cell oversight
Consumer Watchdog created Stem Cell Oversight and Accountability Project to lobby for improved benefits to citizens of California from state funded
In 2006 Consumer Watchdog, through its attorney the
Privacy
Financial privacy
Consumer Watchdog lobbied for
Google and internet privacy
Funded by the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, Consumer Watchdog's "Inside Google" is an initiative which aims to educate the general public "about the need for greater online privacy, and to hold Google accountable for tracking consumers online without explicit permission and for exhibiting its monopolistic power in dangerous ways."[33]
Consumer Watchdog has also campaigned for "
The group campaigned to against what it described as privacy issues with Google, in a series of online videos in 2008. The first asserted that new functions in the Google Chrome web browser transmitted information to the company for tracking purposes. The second asserted that Google was reading emails in its Gmail system, to market to consumers based on contents.[citation needed]
Google later agreed to fix the privacy problems in its Chrome browser, which it claimed were inadvertent,[
In 2010, to bring attention to Google's privacy issues, Consumer Watchdog checked networks in California Representative
In the summer of 2010, the organization launched a video in Times Square portraying Google chief executive Eric Schmidt as an exploitative ice cream salesman.[40] The cartoon led to criticism of Consumer Watchdog by some in the technology industry media.[41][42] In 2011, the group created another video of Schmidt in an effort to get him to testify in front of Congress about what they asserted to be Google’s privacy issues.[43]
In 2011, Consumer Watchdog issued a report, "Lost in the Cloud: Google and the US Government", filled with details obtained through the
The report also asked Congress to look into "Air Google," asserting that Google executives were granted an inappropriate level of access to NASA'S Moffett Federal Airfield[44]
Because of Consumer Watchdog's work, Google allegedly tried to influence the Rose Foundation to halt funding for Inside Google.[45]
On June 19, 2015, Google announced it would remove links to nonconsensual pornography ("revenge porn") on request. Commentators noted that this was not the same thing as implementing a "right to be forgotten" as the company already has policies in place dealing with sensitive personal data such as social security numbers and credit card numbers.[46] However, Consumer Watchdog subsequently called on Google to extend the right to be forgotten to U.S. users, filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.[47]
References
- ^ "A Bittersweet Outcome, Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2000". Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
- ^ Court, Jamie (25 September 2007). "Mandatory health insurance? No sale" – via LA Times.
- ^ "Our Team". Consumer Watchdog. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "About | Consumer Watchdog". www.consumerwatchdog.org. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ Muir, Frederick (1988-12-03). "Rosenfield: Hero to Some, Troublemaker to Others". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
- ^ Wells, Ken (1988). "Moxie Pays Off for Harvey Rosenfield, The New Scrouge of California Insurers". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Wells, p1
- ^ Muir, p2
- ^ Hunter, J. Robert (April 2008). "State Automobile Insurance Regulation: A National Quality Assessment and In-Depth Review of California's Uniquely Effective Regulatory System". Consumer Federation of America.
- ^ Joseph, Brian (2010-03-24). "Consumer advocates cry fowl over initiative". Orange County Register. Archived from the original on 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ Berton, Justin (2003-08-23). "Voters defeat insurance measure". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ "California Proposition 216, Taxes on Healthcare Businesses (1996)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ Benson, Michael (1999-04-21). "Some Insurance Activists Turn the Actuarial Tables". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-08-10.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "WHO'S WHO---Local Forces Playing Key Roles in Patient Rights Issue". Los Angeles Business Journal. 2001-07-16. Retrieved 2010-08-10.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "All aboard the "Rx Express" - To Your Health - February 2010". Archive.guidemag.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ a b Chelsea Green Publishing / By Jamie Court (2010-11-06). "10 Rules of Populist Power - The Progressive's Guide to Raising Hell". AlterNet. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "RxExpress Now Heads Up East Coast Taking Seniors to Buy Canadian Drugs". Seniorjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ Howe, Kenneth (1998-10-25). "STATE PROPOSITIONS / Proposition 9". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Prop. 87 shot down throughout state - except along coast". 2006-11-08.
- ^ "Oil Watchdog Bloggers | Oil Watchdog". Oilwatchdog.org. 2005-03-09. Archived from the original on 2007-05-16. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "The California Majority Report // Consumer Watchdog Exposes Koch Industries on Times Square Superscreen for Prop 23". Camajorityreport.com. 2010-10-13. Archived from the original on 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ Martin, Mark (2003-08-23). "THE SPECIAL ELECTION / CALIFORNIANS SAY NO TO SCHWARZENEGGER / STATE MEASURES: Governor reaches out, doesn't concede". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ "Feds investigate Frist's stock sale - politics - NBC News". NBC News. 2005-09-23. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "Group questions Frist's HCA ties amid debate over tort reform". Consumer Watchdog. 2003-07-14. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ Simpson, John (2006-03-27). "Taxpayers must benefit from stem-cell research". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
- ^ Regalado, Antonio, David P. Hamilton (July 2006). "How a University's Patents May Limit Stem-Cell Researcher." The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ Constance Holden for Science Now. March 12, 2008 WARF Goes 3 for 3 on Patents
- ^ Stephen G. Kunin for Patents Post Grant. May 10, 2010 BPAI Rejects WARF Stem Cell Patent Claims in Inter Partes Reexamination Appeal
- ^ United States Patent And Trademark Office. Board Of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The Foundation For Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, Requester And Appellant V. Patent Of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Patent Owner And Respondent. Appeal 2012-011693, Reexamination Control 95/000,154. Patent 7,029,913 Decision on Appeal Archived 2013-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ GenomeWeb staff, July 03, 2013 Consumer Watchdog, PPF Seek Invalidation of WARF's Stem Cell Patent
- ^ Antoinette Konski for Personalized Medicine Bulletin. February 3, 2014 U.S. Government and USPTO Urges Federal Circuit to Dismiss Stem Cell Appeal
- Sacramento Bee. 8 August 2003.
- ^ "Inside Google | About". Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/resources/cw-conferencetranscript.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Technology". Los Angeles Times. 2010-12-01.
- ^ "Twitter hack raises questions about 'cloud computing'". CNN. 2009-07-16. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
- ^ "Continuing The Good Trend, Foursquare Now Defaults To HTTPS Across The Board". TechCrunch. 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ The Washington Post[dead link]
- ^ Kravets, David (2010-07-09). "Consumer Group Sniffs Congresswoman's Open Wi-Fi". Wired. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ Saint, Nick (2011-01-10). "Crazy Anti-Google Group Distributes Cartoon Video Of Eric Schmidt Preying On Children". The San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Hernandez, Barbara E. (2010-09-03). "Is Consumer Watchdog Losing Credibility With its Google Feud? | PCWorld Business Center". Pcworld.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ "Today in Tech". CNN. Archived from the original on 2010-09-04. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ "Mr. Schmidt Goes to Washington". Consumer Watchdog. 2011-01-25. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
- ^ a b http://insidegoogle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/GOOGGovfinal012411.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ Kang, Cecilia (2010-05-09). "Consumer Watchdog targets Google". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
- ^ Golbeck, Jennifer (19 June 2015). "Google to Remove Revenge Porn from Search Results". Slate.
- ^ Eng, James (7 July 2015). "Consumer Watchdog: Google Should Extend 'Right To Be Forgotten' to U.S." NBC News.