Repair technicians caught snooping; Shrinkflation is alive and well: CBC’s Marketplace cheat sheet | CBC News

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We caught repair technicians snooping on our personal devices

When you need to drop off your tech devices for a repair, how confident are you that they won’t be snooped on?

CBC’s Marketplace took smartphones and laptops to repair stores across Ontario — and found that in more than half of the documented cases, technicians accessed intimate photos and private information not relevant to the repair.

Marketplace dropped off devices at 20 stores — ranging from small independent shops to medium-sized chains to larger national chains — after installing monitoring software on the devices. In total, activities by technicians at 16 stores were recorded. (At four stores, the tracking software didn’t log anything, or the stores didn’t appear to turn the devices on.)

Technicians at nine stores accessed private data, including one technician who not only viewed photos but copied them onto a USB key.

“These results are frightening,” said Hassan Khan, associate professor in the school of computer science at the University of Guelph. “It’s looking through information, searching for data on users’ devices, copying data off the device…. It’s as bad as it gets.” Read more

You can watch the full investigation, “Testing tech repair: who’s spying on you?” tonight at 8 p.m. (8:30 in N.L.) on CBC TV and CBC Gem.  

Inflation is cooling. The cost of living crisis is not

Inflation appears to be coming back to earth. That may give the Bank of Canada enough wiggle room to pause its series of interest rate hikes. So, for the first time in a long time, Canadians can find some reason to believe the worst of the cost of living crisis is behind them.

But there’s a big difference between “things not getting worse” and “things getting better.”

Prices for just about everything are a lot higher than they were a couple of years ago. And while there has been widespread progress in bringing price growth to heel, prices for many products continue to climb every month.

Year over year, the cost of groceries is up 5.8 per cent. That’s down from more than 11 per cent at this time last year, but still a substantial increase for households that are already stretched thin.

“We have seen the annual rate of inflation has started to come down, but that doesn’t mean that the level of prices is not [still] unaffordable for a lot of people,” said CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.

Even as inflation grinds its way back to more manageable levels, many economists warn we are still a long way from interest rate cuts.

Grantham says if we really are through the worst of the inflation crisis, then maybe the Bank of Canada can start gradually lowering borrowing costs. But he doesn’t expect movement on that until the middle of next year.

Even so, he says Canadians should not expect a return to the good ol’ days of extremely low interest rates.

“There’s this concept of ‘higher for longer;’ we’re not going to get back to those very low interest rates of the past,” he said.

So actual relief for most Canadians remains a light at the end of a distant tunnel. 

Before things get better, they have to stop getting worse. The good news is that Canadians are finally seeing some evidence that the “getting worse” phase appears to be drawing to a close. Read more 

Taller box, less cereal? Calls for more transparency when companies shrink your groceries

Ellyn Newall of Edmonton felt duped after a recent grocery shop. 

She had purchased two family-sized boxes of Honeycomb cereal for the same price. But when she unpacked her shopping bag, she noticed one box was slightly taller — and slimmer — than the other.

Turns out the shorter box is older packaging, which is being phased out. The taller box is new packaging — but taller doesn’t mean more product.

In fact, when Newall took a closer look, she discovered the new box has 70 grams less cereal — a reduction of almost 12 per cent.

“The first thing you think is, like: ‘How could they do that to us?’ You feel upset. You feel deceived,” she said. 

It’s called shrinkflation and it occurs when food producers shrink items but not the price or packaging, making it hard to detect. It has been going on for years. 

But as Canadians struggle with rising grocery prices, there are growing calls for more transparency when companies downsize products. 

“Everything seems to be more expensive now. And by simply reducing the size of their products, people maybe feel like they’re being tricked a little bit,” said Sylvie De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with the consumer advocacy group Option Consommateurs. 

U.S.-based Post Consumer Brands, makers of Honeycomb cereal, did not reply to requests for comment.  Read more

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What else is going on?

Menopause is costing Canada’s economy billions, according to a new report
It suggests missed work days, lower productivity and lost income due to menopause symptoms cost $2.5 billion a year.

This woman is feeling “ripped off” after booking a short-term rental home through Vrbo
She says she wasn’t allowed to access the advertised heated pool or cable, but Vrbo says the issues weren’t “significant misrepresentation.”

Buyers of a Brampton townhome project are still waiting for their keys — 6 years after some made deposits
Some buyers were told the initial completion date of the project was December 2020.

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Marketplace needs your help!

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