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Wales Online
8 hours ago
- Business
- Wales Online
ASOS is permanently closing customer accounts without warning and people are furious
ASOS is permanently closing customer accounts without warning and people are furious Frequent returners who shop at the online fashion retailer now risk having their accounts permanently closed ASOS have made another controversial change to their 'fair use' policy which impacts returns (Image: © 2018 SOPA Images/Getty ) Online fashion retail giant ASOS are now closing customers accounts because of their return activity. ASOS came under fire in September after they announced their new "fair use" policy, which introduced return charges for certain customers who the retailer said made returns too frequently. The retailer had previously offered UK shoppers free returns of unused items within 14 days, but wrote to some shoppers saying it had updated its "fair use" policy to clamp down on frequent returners. Those signed up to the group's Premier subscription service were told they would have to keep at least £15 of their original order to escape a fee, while non-subscription shoppers who regularly send back large amounts would have to keep at least £40 of their orders. However the retailer is now clamping down on returns even further and has contacted some customers to say that their accounts will be closed due to their return activity. An email sent out to affected customers said: "Some time ago, we contacted you to inform you of certain changes made to our Fair Use Policy. "After reviewing your recent return activity again, you are still part of a small group of customers whose shopping behaviour continues to breach our Fair Use Policy. For this reason, we have decided to close your account. "We're letting you know that your account will be closed in 30 days. Please note that this also applies to any other accounts you currently have or may try to open in the future." One frustrated customer posted a video on TikTok about her account being closed. @vmyellen said: "ASOS I'm really mad at you" From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here Article continues below She added that she had contacted customer services but was told the decision was final before the chat was closed. People in the comments were similarly confused about ASOS's decision One person said: "Lol, l I just had an email this morning saying they were closing my account because I'd 'breached the fair use policy'. 105 orders over the past 10 years and I definitely keep WAY more than I return. I tried to log a complaint and every time I ask on the chat they just paste the policy and close the chat." Content cannot be displayed without consent A second customer added: "Been shopping with them since about 2006; I lived on the website at one point and 95% of my wardrobe was ASOS. In the last five or so years their quality has been abysmal and seeing how they are now treating seemingly innocent customers has disgusted me. "No wonder people are returning a lot when everything is so badly made. So I just deleted my account and deleted the app. Good bye to old news." Another ASOS customer took to X to say that despite spending £100 a month on the website, their account had been closed. Hours later, the official ASOS Instagram account asked if they could use a photo posted by the customer showcasing their clothes. Content cannot be displayed without consent "Obsessed with asos banning me from being a customer because the majority of their clothes are awful quality or botched sizing and therefore need to be returned," another person wrote on X. However, some people defended ASOS and said that it's costly for businesses when so many people are returning items often. One wrote: "Not excusing asos but the reason it's different from in store is because the cost of orders and returns for online is so much higher and they lose a significant amount of money on returns, whereas that doesn't happen with in store purchases." Article continues below ASOS have been contacted for comment
Wales Online
a day ago
- Wales Online
Every Gmail account user should check one setting immediately
Every Gmail account user should check one setting immediately Google is warning all users to make some important security changes to their Gmail, Google and YouTube accounts Gmail users have been urged to make a simple change to protect themselves from being targeted by hackers (Image: SOPA Images, SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images ) Online safety should be at the top of everyone's priority list, with Gmail and Google users being strongly advised to change one of their security settings quickly. It comes after an FBI report revealed the true scale of cruel online scams. The FBI claimed cybercriminals siphoned off more than £12billion in 2024 alone, with such attacks seeing a major 33% spike. Despite widespread knowledge about the dangers of cybercrime, shockingly weak passwords remain commonplace, leaving countless people vulnerable to these sophisticated hackers. Astonishingly simple combinations like "password", "qwerty", and "123456" are still frequently used. Given the astronomical losses to scammers, Google is urging its users to put some upgrades on their account security. The tech giant recommends moving past traditional password protection in favour of cutting-edge alternatives such as Sign in with Google and passkeys. For those not aware, these updates login methods allow you to have fewer passwords and let you access accounts using fingerprint and facial recognition, taking advantage of biometric recognition for access. These security measures aren't new and have been available for some time, but it appears that uptake varies depending on age ranges. Data suggests that more than 60% of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers carry on using conventional passwords as their main authentication tool, reports the Mirror. Switching your password can protect you from losing everything to cybercriminals and hackers (Image: Moyo Studio via Getty Images ) Article continues below Notably, the younger Gen Z demographic is shunning old-fashioned security measures such as wordy passwords, instead favouring more sophisticated authentication tools. Google's Evan Kotsovinos said: "We want to move beyond passwords altogether, while keeping sign-ins as easy as possible, so we strongly encourage using modern methods like Sign in with Google and passkeys, which can be stored in and synced across your devices with Google Password Manager. "Passkeys are phishing-resistant and can log you in simply with the method you use to unlock your device (like your fingerprint or face ID) - no password required. And when you pair the ease and safety of passkeys with your Google Account, you can then use Sign in with Google to log in to your favourite websites and apps - limiting the number of accounts you have to maintain. Gen Z's embrace of these tools actually represents a big step forward for collective security." The FBI claimed cybercriminals siphoned off more than £12billion in 2024 alone, with such attacks seeing a major 33% spike (Image: Getty ) For those who find this too technical, there's an alternative - enable 2-Step Verification (2SV). This feature adds an extra layer of security by requiring a separate code for login, which is typically sent to another device that the account holder possesses. Kotsovinos added: "For people who still prefer passwords, we have tools like 2-Step Verification (2SV), the Google Authenticator App and Google Password Manager - that provide a second line of defence so that a password alone can't empower a bad actor." Article continues below Cyber threats are here to stay. If you don't want to become the next victim, then it's a good idea to follow this advice and switch away from passwords or add an extra layer of security.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
WhatsApp Rolls Out Ads, Breaking Its ‘No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!' Pledge
POLAND - 2024/02/23: In this photo illustration a WhatsApp logo seen displayed on a smartphone. ... More (Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) For several years, WhatsApp characterized itself on a defining promise: no ads, no gimmicks and no data-hungry distractions. This week, that promise was officially broken. Meta, which acquired the messaging giant over a decade ago, is rolling out advertisements within WhatsApp's 'Updates' tab — an important shift for a platform that long resisted ad-driven revenue models. The move marks WhatsApp's first consumer-facing ad integration, as well as Meta's push to monetize its 3-billion-user crown jewel beyond business tools. 'We've been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years,' Meta wrote in a June 16 blog post. 'We believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work.' Now, alongside updates from friends and family, users will see sponsored content from businesses. Meta says it will use only limited information for ad targeting, such as a user's city, language and the channels they follow. Notably, it claims it won't access message content, group chats or call data. 'Your personal messages, calls and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see,' the team wrote. Still, the changes breach the core ethos that helped WhatsApp gain popularity and once set it apart from the more overtly data-hungry design of other social platforms. The tension between WhatsApp's founding values and Meta's business model was laid bare as early as 2018, when co-founder Brian Acton told Forbes he left the company over Facebook's plans to monetize the app by introducing targeted ads in the Status feature and its behind-the-scenes pressure to weaken WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption. In the interview, Acton was unambiguous: 'Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy.' At the time, Facebook insisted it wouldn't compromise user privacy, but security researchers pointed out to Forbes that there were 'nuanced' ways to extract metadata or scan messages for keywords before encryption, potentially enabling ad targeting without technically breaking encryption. Even earlier, in a now-famous 2012 blog post, WhatsApp co-founders Acton and Jan Koum described their aversion to advertising in detail, and, in the post, even quoted Fight Club to make their point: 'At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data… We are simply not interested in any of it.' Koum reportedly also kept a note from Acton taped to his desk reading: 'No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!' That ideology was central to WhatsApp's identity. After Meta's $19 billion acquisition in 2014, WhatsApp dropped its $0.99 annual subscription fee but promised to keep the app free of third-party ads and spam. That era is now over. Meta earned more than $160 billion in advertising revenue last year, including Facebook and Instagram. WhatsApp is now being folded into the company's broader monetization strategy — and time will tell what kind of trade-offs users are willing to accept. Beyond ads in Status, Meta is introducing promoted channels and paid subscriptions for channel followers. But even if the changes don't affect message threads directly, Meta's ad-driven incentives continue to be at odds with WhatsApp's encryption-first reputation. Online, the backlash was swift. Reddit threads are peppered with users threatening to jump ship to Signal and Telegram. One comment, upvoted more than 3,500 times, reads: 'Meta/Facebook promised to never add advertising to WhatsApp when they acquired the app for $19bln. The moral of the story: Never trust the Zuck.' Others appear less concerned. Since the ads live in the lesser-used Updates tab, many casual users may barely notice. Despite backlash over Instagram ads, Threads rollouts and Facebook redesigns, Meta's platforms have consistently retained users — particularly in markets like India, Brazil and Indonesia, where WhatsApp is used daily to work, shop and bank. Still, WhatsApp is no longer the lean, user-first app it once was. It's now part of Meta's full-stack data-and-commerce engine, with all the complexity — and controversy — that brings. As WhatsApp enters its next era, it's difficult not to consider how unlikely this shift may have looked to its early users. 'Remember, when advertising is involved, you the user are the product,' the app's 2012 manifesto warned. In 2025, that product is mature, monetized and unmistakably meta.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Today's ‘Wordle' #1461 Hints, Clues And Answer For Thursday, June 19th
How to solve today's Wordle. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Looking for Tuesday's Wordle hints, clues and answer? You can find them here: It's Thor's Day, which means that I give you the answer to yesterday's Wordle Wednesday riddle before we dive into our Wordle guide. Here was the riddle: A viking and a dragon live together on an island in the middle of the sea. On the island there are five pools of magical water. Each pool is higher up the mountainside than the last, and the fifth and highest pool can only be reached by the dragon. Drinking from a pool poisons the drinker, but drinking from the next pool higher up immediately cures the poison. After many years on the island, the two grow tired of one another and agree on a challenge. Each will bring a chalice filled with water for the other to drink. They are allowed to refill their chalice from one of the pools afterwards. On the day of the challenge, both the viking and the dragon drink. The dragon then rushes to the highest pool and drinks deeply. Moments later, the beast drops dead. The viking lives alone on the island. How is this possible? The answer: The viking drank from the first pool before showing up to the challenge. He filled the chalice he was giving to the dragon with seawater. Once they both had downed their challices, the dragon rushed to the top pool and drank what ended up being a poisonous draft. The viking didn't drink again — the dragon's chalice healed his poison instead of killing him. Now, it's Wordle time! The Hint: A rare or curious object. The Clue: This Wordle has more vowels than consonants. Okay, spoilers below! The answer is coming! . . . Today's Wordle Credit: Erik Kain Every day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordles with Wordle Bot right here. CREAM was a good starting guess, leaving me with just 15 answers. I decided I'd try to move the yellow 'R' and guess all new letters for the rest instead of guessing the answer on the second guess. HORNY — I know, what can I say, it was the best word I could come up with — did the trick, leaving me with just one remaining solution: CURIO for the win! Today's Wordle Bot Screenshot: Erik Kain The Bot and I each get 1 point for guessing in three and 0 for tying. This bumps our June totals to: Erik: 12 points Wordle Bot: 9 points FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The word "curio" is a shortened form of "curiosity", dating to the mid-19th century. It comes from the Latincūriōsitās, meaning curiousness or inquisitiveness. In English, "curio" came to mean a small, interesting, or unusual object—typically one collected for its rarity or charm. Let me know how you fared with your Wordle today on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog where I write about games, TV shows and movies when I'm not writing puzzle guides. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
Black America Web
2 days ago
- Business
- Black America Web
Trump To Sign Executive Order Granting TikTok 90-Day Extension Amid Ongoing Sale Talks
Source: SOPA Images / Getty President Donald Trump is set to sign a new executive order this week that will grant TikTok another 90-day reprieve from a potential U.S. ban, the White House confirmed Tuesday. This marks the third such extension since Trump took office in January, as his administration continues negotiations over the future of the popular video-sharing app. 'President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. 'As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.' The app, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has been at the center of a heated national security debate. U.S. officials have raised concerns over the possibility that American user data could be accessed by the Chinese government. In April 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. TikTok operations by January 19, 2025. The law allowed for just one 90-day extension, already granted earlier this year. The new executive order, therefore, represents a second extension that technically exceeds the timeline outlined in the law. TikTok has not yet secured a buyer for its U.S. operations. Reuters reported that talks stalled in April following the announcement of new tariffs on Chinese imports, leading Chinese regulators to delay necessary approvals for any sale. With the latest extension, TikTok now has until mid-September to reach a deal. SEE ALSO Trump To Sign Executive Order Granting TikTok 90-Day Extension Amid Ongoing Sale Talks was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
