"We fight for that" – PIAC’s podcast launched!

“We fight for that” – is the new podcast from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) focussing on consumer protection in Canada.  This first episode includes an introduction to PIAC, asking and answering why you, as a Canadian consumer, keep asking “Am I Going Crazy?” when you have a problem with your purchases and subscriptions; and a detailed explanation of PIAC’s COVID Alert app CRTC Application, that seeks to limit government access to any personal information from contact-tracing in Canada.  Our last segment, which we hope will be fun, is “I told you so!” – where we call out government, regulators, the industry or even ourselves, when someone should have known better (and we already told them so).  This week: the freight-train wreck that is the CRTC and wireless companies’ efforts to stamp out “SIM-swap fraud” in cellphone number porting.  Why not just hold a public hearing where real consumers could help make sure the process of changing from one cellphone to another is easy and quick, but also that fraudsters cannot pretend to be you, take over your phone account, and steal your money? Why take the very people – consumers – out of the debate over the security of their most important device, their cellphone? C’mon CRTC – hold a public hearing – it’s not just PIAC but also a Parliamentary Committee that wants one.