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Tag: Lawmakers

  • Monster Drinks Investigated For Targeting Children

    Monster Beverage Corp. is coming under attack in an investigation by a New York state attorney general and a San Francisco city attorney general.

    Amidst all the death reports cause by energy drinks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that there is no solid evidence that the beverages have caused them.

    Yet in October, WebMD reported that a Maryland couple filed a lawsuit against Monster in the death of their 14-year-old daughter who drank two cans within one day from each other but then collapsed and was placed into an induced coma.

    Doctors declared that her heart had stopped following the consumption of the second 24-ounce drink.

    According to health experts, caffeinated Monster drinks contain on average 240 mg, but the daily recommended caffeine-intake for minors is 100 mg.

    The parents’ lawsuit claimed that the product’s ingredients are dangerous and shouldn’t be marketed towards young children and/or teenagers.

    Some have accused the company for not being completely transparent about the ingredients and even then the possible health risks the drink may expose to its consumers.

    It looks like other lawmakers couldn’t agree more.

    San Francisco attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit on the basis that Monster is intentionally marketing their products to minors.

    Monster responded to the lawsuit with their on lawsuit requesting to stop the investigation, but a California judge threw out the corporation’s case.

    However, the California-based company isn’t the only energy drink coming under scrutiny.

    New York attorney General Eric Schneiderman is also attacking the company along with others for marketing their products to children.

    The FDA doesn’t see the drink as a problem per se, but views the high concentration of caffeine as the reason for major health concerns.

    “FDA continues to evaluate the emerging science on a variety of ingredients, including caffeine,” a spokeswoman for the agency previously told WebMD.

    Monster Beverage Corp. has yet to make a statement on the investigations.

    UPDATE 1/15/13 2:06 p.m. 

    Here is a statement sent in by Monster Beverage’s PR:

    “The sale and consumption of more than 10 billion Monster energy drinks worldwide over more than 11 years has shown that our products are safe.  Contrary to allegations, they are not “highly caffeinated” and they are not marketed to children. In fact, a 16-ounce Monster Energy drink contains less than half the caffeine of a 16-oz (medium) size cup of Starbucks brewed coffee.  Monster’s labels state: “Consume responsibly:  Not recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant women or women who are nursing.” “

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • More Backlash From Google’s New Privacy Policy

    More concern over Google’s announcement of new privacy policies, this time from prominent lawmaker Edward Markey. He’s demanding a probe into Google’s management of consumer data.

    This comes after yesterday’s issuance of a letter to Google from a group of lawmaker’s demanding clarification about consumer’s rights under the new policies.

    Markey Google+%289to5+Google+-+Beyond+Good+and+Evil%29″>demands that the Federal Communications Commission investigate further what options users will have in regard to how their personal information can be managed:

    “…All consumers should have the right to say no to sharing of their personal information, particularly when young people are involved. Google’s new privacy policy should enable consumers to opt-out if they don’t want their use of YouTube to morph into YouTrack.”

    “Consumers – not corporations – should have control over their own personal information, especially for children and teens. I plan to ask the Federal Trade Commission whether Google’s planned changes to its privacy policy violate Google’s recent settlement with the agency.”

    A blog post from Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello addressed just that issue on Thursday:

    “We’re not collecting more data about you. Our new policy simply makes it clear that we use data to refine and improve your experience on Google.”

    So we will have to wait to see what the response will be from Google on whether user’s can opt-out of these policies or if there is control over what is done with our personal information. Google has already responded to related inquires about changes to Government and enterprise services offered at Google and if they would be affected by the new policies.

  • Can Consumers Opt-Out Of Google’s New Privacy Policy?

    Beginning March 1st Google will begin to monitor user’s habits, preferences, and proclivities much more closely and in a systematic fashion. The company reports that they will do this to help refine their products and deliver more effective advertising. This has a lot of users in an uproar! Now the policies have caught the attention of several U.S. lawmakers.

    In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, eight United States lawmakers convey their sentiments and pose questions regarding Google’s upcoming privacy policy changes. The following is some of what was said in that letter:

    “Google’s announcement raises questions about whether consumers can opt out of the new data sharing system either globally or on a product-by-product basis.”

    “We believe that consumers should have the ability to opt out of data collection when they are not comfortable with a company’s terms of service and that the ability to exercise that choice should be simple and straightforward.”

    “While Google suggests that the purpose of this shift in policy is to make the consumer experience simpler, we want to make sure it does not make protecting consumer privacy more complicated.”

    Further questions revolved around users who decided to delete their accounts with Google and if their information would be retained or deleted. There are about twenty questions in total about the new Google privacy policies.

    The lawmakers have requested a response from Google and would like it to be before February 16th.