Raphael Stevens

T-Mobile was sued for failing to protect sensitive consumer data after an employee at one of its retail stores stole nude images off of a customer’s phone.
The incident is similar to at least eight others levied against T-Mobile in the past.
The lawsuit accuses the wireless giant of failing to properly train its employees and put up safeguards that would prevent sensitive data from being compromised.

A T-Mobile store in New York, March 16, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

T-Mobile is once again being accused of failing to protect sensitive consumer data after an employee at one of its retail stores stole nude images from a customer’s phone when she came to trade in an old device, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. 
The incident is similar to at least eight others levied against T-Mobile in the past, according to court records and news reports. The lawsuit comes as wireless companies and other tech giants face increasing pressure from lawmakers to do more to protect customer data. 

The suit, filed in Washington state court, accuses T-Mobile of failing to properly train its retail workers and “turning a blind eye” when employees use their access to steal customer data under the guise they’re helping them with repairs and data transfers.
“For almost a decade, T-Mobile customers across the United States have regularly reported, evidenced by news stories and lawsuits, instances of retail store employees stealing their intimate videos, explicit photos, and bank accounts,” the suit charges. “Nevertheless, T-Mobile has failed to implement any common-sense security hardware or software to protect consumers from their data and privacy being exploited during ordinary transactions at the T-Mobile store.”
T-Mobile didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The victim, who is only referred to as “Jane Doe” in the complaint, states she went to a T-Mobile store at the Columbia Center Mall, about 200 miles southeast of Seattle, last October to upgrade her iPhone XS Max to an iPhone 14 Pro Max. While there, she handed the old device off to an employee so he could transfer her data to the new device. 
While the worker had the phone, he found nude images of the victim and a video of her having sex with her partner on the camera roll of the XS Max and sent it to himself on Snapchat, the lawsuit states.  

Once the transaction was finished, Jane assumed her data was wiped from the old phone until later that evening, when she checked her Snapchat and saw that the images had been sent to an unknown account, which police later traced back to the T-Mobile employee.
“Anxious and concerned, Jane hastily returned to the T-Mobile store with her mother to speak to the store manager,” the lawsuit states. “During this time, while Jane was seeking assistance at the T-Mobile store, the unauthorized person continued to log into her social media accounts on the iPhone XS Max.” 
At first, staff claimed there had been no trade-ins that day, but with help from mall security and local police, Jane’s old phone was found in the back room. 
“Rather than helping Jane out in the face of the sexual privacy crime, the T-Mobile manager said if Jane wanted access back to the old device that had been weaponized against her, Jane would need to pay them the amount that they had discounted her for the trade-in,” the lawsuit states. “Jane’s mother on Jane’s behalf surrendered and paid the amount.” 
The employee was later charged with first degree computer trespass, a felony, and disclosing intimate images, which is a crime in most states, according to the lawsuit. He pleaded guilty last month, the suit says. 
The lawsuit was filed by Carrie Goldberg and Laura Hecht-Felella at the New York-based C.A. Goldberg firm and Emma Aubrey from the Washington-based Redmond Law Firm. 
Goldberg, who frequently takes on tech giants for failing to protect consumers, called her latest suit a “classic case of a gargantuan company” chalking off customer injury as a cost of doing business. 
“T-Mobile has long known that its negligent hiring and absent consumer safety policies will result in at least some of its customers becoming sexually exploited,” Goldberg told CNBC.
“T-Mobile has big incentive programs to induce customers to upgrade their devices and turn in their old ones. But the ugly truth is that T-Mobile knows that employees sometimes steal customers’ most intimate images and videos from the old devices they relinquish,” Goldberg added. “This case shows that nobody should feel their privacy is safe at T-Mobile.” More

United Auto Workers members at Ford Motor have ratified a new labor contract.
A majority of Ford facilities overwhelmingly approved the deal, which, like those with GM and Stellantis, includes at least 25% wage increases.
The contract ratifications come weeks after the automakers and union reached tentative deals, ending about six weeks of targeted strikes by the UAW.

Members of the United Auto Workers union picket outside the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023.
Matthew Hatcher | AFP | Getty Images

DETROIT — Union members at Ford Motor approved a tentative agreement Friday, concluding contentious contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Detroit automakers.
UAW-Ford workers were the last of the automakers to ratify their pact after General Motors workers narrowly approved an agreement Thursday and Stellantis workers supported their agreement, according to preliminary vote results published Friday by the union.

According to the UAW’s vote tracker, which must still be finalized, the Ford deal was supported by 68.2% of the nearly 35,000 autoworkers at Ford who voted. There were still a few smaller facilities left to finalize voting, but there aren’t enough employees at those locations to offset the more than 12,600-vote margin.
Local UAW chapters representing every Ford plant voted in favor of the pact aside from a small parts facility in Florida and the automaker’s massive Kentucky Truck Plant, as of early Friday afternoon. The plant that pushed ratification over the edge was the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, with roughly 2,700 members voting in support of the deal by 78.7%, according to the union’s vote tracker.
Ford and the UAW didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The contract ratifications come weeks after the automakers and union reached tentative deals, ending about six weeks of targeted strikes by the UAW. The strikes, which began on Sept. 15, involved targeted work stoppages that expanded plant by plant as a means of ratcheting up pressure on the automakers.
Preliminary results at Stellantis showed 68.4% support by hourly workers who voted. At GM, the vote returned 54.7% approval.

GM’s voting was closer, in part, due to the demographics of the company’s workforce. The automaker has the highest number of traditional workers on a percentage basis compared with its crosstown rivals. Such workers have voiced disapproval for the wage increases granted to them by the deals, compared with those offered to newer hires. They were also dissatisfied with pension contributions and retirement benefits.
Still, the agreements are record-setting for the union, which was far more confrontational and strategic during the talks than in recent history, as promised by UAW President Shawn Fain, who started leading the union in March.
The deals include wage increases of at least 25%, the return of cost-of-living adjustments and other economic improvements. The union said improvements are valued at more than four times the gains from the 2019 contract and provide more in base wage increases than workers have received in the past 22 years.

Read more CNBC auto news

For the union and Fain, the deals and the associated economic gains help in efforts to grow the union’s ranks through inclusion of future jobs such as those at battery plants and organizing at other nonunion automakers operating in the U.S.
For the companies as well as their investors, the contracts represent the top end of forecast increases in labor costs.
Ford CFO John Lawler in October said the UAW deal, if ratified by members, would add $850 to $900 in costs per vehicle assembled. He said Ford will work to “find productivity and efficiencies and cost reductions throughout the company” to offset the additional costs and deliver on previously announced profitability targets. More

Cadillac’s new entry-level electric vehicle will be a compact crossover called Optiq, the company announced Friday.
The General Motors brand says the vehicle, which will be its fourth EV, will slot below the Lyriq midsize crossover, which starts around $59,000.
Cadillac’s first EV was the Lyriq, followed by a bespoke $300,000-plus Celestiq sedan and an upcoming all-electric version of the Escalade SUV, which starts at about $130,000.

2025 Cadillac Optiq

DETROIT – Cadillac’s new entry-level electric vehicle will be a compact-sized crossover called Optiq, the company said Friday.
The General Motors brand said the vehicle, which will be its fourth EV, will slot below the current entry-level Lyriq midsize crossover EV, which starts around $59,000.

Cadillac declined to disclose pricing and other specifics of the 2025 Optiq, which is expected to go on sale in the U.S. as early as next year. The vehicle is anticipated to be sold in North America, China, Europe and potentially other markets.
A Cadillac spokesman confirmed Friday that the brand still plans to exclusively offer EVs by 2030, despite slower-than-expected demand for the vehicles. Cadillac initially announced the target several years ago. Its parent company, GM, subsequently set a target to exclusively offer EVs by 2035.
Cadillac’s first EV was the Lyriq, followed by a bespoke $300,000-plus Celestiq sedan and an upcoming all-electric version of the Escalade SUV, which starts at about $130,000.

2025 Cadillac Optiq

GM, including Cadillac, has been far slower than expected to roll out and produce EVs, as the company battled through supply chain problems and issues ramping up domestic battery cell production.
Cadillac sold fewer than 5,400 Lyriq EVs through September. The company announced earlier this week it will expand EV sales to Australia and New Zealand, starting with a right-hand-drive version of the Lyriq.

“Cadillac is experiencing great sales momentum thanks to our strong product portfolio — and we are now expanding our business globally,” said John Roth, vice president of Cadillac, in a statement. “The introduction of a right-hand-drive Lyriq will enable new opportunities in important markets where EV adoption is strong.”
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Early Black Friday discounts were far higher this October compared to prior years, a signal that retailers could be worried about holiday demand.
Both the depth of discounts and the total amount of items on sale were higher in October compared to the last four years.
Some retailers are relying on discounts to drive demand among cautious consumers.

Barbie dolls (R) are displayed for sale ahead of Black Friday at a Walmart Supercenter on November 14, 2023 in Burbank, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Early Black Friday discounts were far higher this October compared to prior years, signaling retailers are concerned that demand could be tepid during the crucial holiday shopping season. 
Promotions across a range of categories, including apparel, appliances and computers, were significantly higher last month than in 2021 and 2022, data from Adobe Analytics show. For example, the price of apparel online was 9% lower throughout October compared to the beginning of the month, but in 2021 and 2022, it was just 2% and 5% lower, respectively, the data show. 

Out of eight categories that are popular during the holiday that Adobe tracks, only electronics and toys saw fewer discounts last month than prior years, according to its analysis. 
Adobe’s data doesn’t include promotions at physical retail locations but does cover over one trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, 100 million SKUs and 18 total product categories, which it says is more than any other technology company or research organization. 

For years, so-called “holiday creep” has seen Black Friday discounts beginning earlier than the day after Thanksgiving, as companies look to prolong the shopping season and address shifting demands from consumers who want more time to buy gifts. While prices are already low, promotions are expected to peak on Black Friday through Cyber Monday, Adobe said.
While consumer spending fell in October, according to the new CNBC/ National Retail Federation Retail Monitor, strong discounts during the month did fuel spend online, according to Adobe.
Online sales grew nearly 6% to $76.8 billion compared to last year and was fueled by deep discounts and an uptick in buy now, pay later use, which allows customers to split up orders into four payments, according to Adobe. Last year, about 30% of overall holiday sales happened online and other non-stores versus physical retail locations, according to the NRF.

Research firm GlobalData’s data back up Adobe’s findings. 
Both the depth of discounts and the total amount of items that were on sale during October also came in higher than the last four years, according to an analysis of U.S. retailers from GlobalData. 

During October, discounts were on average as high as 24.1% for apparel, homewares, electronics, toys and games, sporting goods and beauty, compared to 16.7% off in 2019 and 12.9% off in 2021, GlobalData said. On average, 7.8% of all items were on sale at some point during the month compared to just 4.9% in 2019 and 3.3% in 2021. 
Overall, Adobe’s digital price index shows prices were lower in October compared to previous years. Last month, prices were down over 6% compared to last year. In Oct. 2022, prices were down just .7% compared to the prior year and in Oct. 2021, prices were up 1.9% compared to the prior year. 

Bad times ahead?

The early and steep discounts, which are expected to reach record highs this holiday season, aren’t necessarily a harbinger of tough economic times ahead. But the trend does provide insight into the state of an increasingly cautious consumer and the steps retailers are taking to drum up demand and remain competitive against persistent inflation.
“It shows a concern that they’re worried about the holiday season. They’re concerned that it’s not going to be super strong,” said Professor Daniel Rubin, an expert in consumer behavior from St. John’s University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business. “That’s kind of the impetus, right? That’s why they want to stretch it out. That’s why they feel that they need to offer deeper deals on a greater variety of product categories.” 
The variations on discounting each year reflect the nuances that have come with recent holiday seasons, which have been tough to predict because of the chaos that came from the Covid pandemic.
In 2021, consumers were flush with cash from stimulus, and supply chains were snarled, which created a classic case of high demand and low supply that caused prices to rise and promotions to fall. The following year, when both inventories and inflation had grown and consumers were starting to feel the burn of high prices, promotions rose. 
This year, retailers are still trying to figure out the new calculus and may have “mis-read and over-projected” consumer demand for tangible goods, said Professor Brett House, who teaches economics at Columbia Business School.
“Higher discounts on goods may reflect a continued heavier interest by consumers in spending on services and experiences rather than tangible items as folks continue to make up for missed opportunities during the pandemic-induced shutdowns,” House said of a trend that’s persisted much of the year.
It may also “reflect a desire by businesses to bring inventories down and move product ahead of what is expected to be slower growth and weaker consumer spending in 2024 than we’ve seen this year,” he added. 

Hooked on discounts

So far, holiday outlooks from retailers reporting earnings over the past couple of weeks have been mixed. TJX told shareholders it’s expecting a strong holiday season. Gap was a bit more cautious and said it expects sales to be flat or slightly negative.
Walmart finance chief John David Rainey told CNBC shoppers are “leaning heavily” into major promotions, and October trends left the company rethinking just how healthy the consumer is. 
Target, which was bullish headed into the holiday this time last year, said this week it was too early to weigh in on the holiday season, even as splashy Black Friday ads litter its website and stores. 
During a call with investors, the company’s executive team used the word “value” 17 times and the words “affordable,” “affordability” or “affordably” seven times.
If deep discounting is what’s fueling holiday spending, a trend that began to pick up last year, consumers are getting accustomed to promotions and some retailers could find themselves struggling to convince them to pay full price.
“There’s gonna be a really long term problem here,” said Rubin, “where retailers are now almost conditioning consumers to really never pay full price, and so I think you might start to see even deeper discounts needed to kind of get people excited to create that sense of urgency.”
He added: “I don’t know how you go back from this. If you’re offering deals all the time, consumers get used to that. They don’t expect to pay full price and as a result, they won’t pay full price and if you’re not going to offer that discount for them, your competitor likely will.” More

TGL’s Florida dome suffered a collapse due to a power outage earlier this week.
The damage and the timelines are still being assessed.
The Tiger Woods-backed league is scheduled to launch in January.

Tiger Woods of the United States catches a ball on the practice area during the third round of the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 08, 2023 in Augusta, Georgia. 
Andrew Redington | Getty Images

Extensive damage at a Florida dome venue is potentially a big blow to the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy-backed tech-infused golf league two months out from its launch.
Photos surfaced earlier this week showing that the air-supported SoFi Center dome, located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, had collapsed due to a power outage.

“We are still assessing the damage and determining the impact on our timelines,” the league, TGL, told CNBC.
The indoor golf league, which counts the PGA Tour as a partner, is slated to launch on Jan. 9, featuring about two dozen tour golfers. ESPN and ESPN+ are set to show the matches.
The venue was custom built for the league.
The league addressed the collapse earlier this week. “An overnight failure to the temporary power system used during the construction phase caused partial deflation and limited damage to the air-supported dome section of the site,” it said. “The dome section has been further deflated by our crew and will remain down while they work to remedy the situation.”
The roof collapse is yet another headache for the nascent league. Earlier this month, Jon Rahm, the 2023 Masters winner, abruptly pulled out of TGL.

“While I still think it’s a great opportunity, right now it would require a level of commitment that I can’t offer,” Rahm said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The TGL developments also come as the PGA Tour pursues a controversial business partnership with Saudi-funded rival LIV Golf.
–CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report. More

United Auto Workers members at Chrysler owner Stellantis have ratified a new labor contract.
The contract ratifications come weeks after the automakers and union reached tentative deals, ending roughly six weeks of targeted strikes by the UAW.
A majority of the Stellantis’ plants approved the deal, which, like those at GM and Ford, includes at least 25% wage increases.

United Auto Workers members rally outside Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, after the union called a strike at the plant on Oct. 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT – United Auto Workers members at Chrysler owner Stellantis have ratified a new labor contract following a historically contentious round of bargaining between the union and company, according to preliminary results posted Friday by the union.
The deal is the second this week for the Detroit automakers. A pact with General Motors received 54.7% support from UAW-GM members who voted, according to preliminary results. UAW members with Ford Motor are on pace to also ratify their agreement, but are continuing to vote Friday.

A majority of Stellantis facilities overwhelmingly approved the deal, which, like GM and Ford, includes at least 25% wage increases. It also includes the reopening of an Illinois plant that had been indefinitely idled.
According to the UAW’s vote tracker, the deal was supported by 68.4% of the more than 26,000 hourly autoworkers at Stellantis who voted. There were still a few smaller facilities left to finalize voting, but there aren’t enough employees at those locations to offset the roughly 9,650-vote margin.
The Stellantis deal received notable objection at the automaker’s Jeep plants in Toledo, Ohio, with 55% of workers there opposing the deal. Other major assembly plants overwhelmingly supported the pact.
Both the UAW and Stellantis declined to comment on the results until they’ve been finalized.
The contract ratifications come weeks after the automakers and the union reached tentative deals, ending roughly six weeks of targeted strikes by the UAW.

The agreements are record-setting for the union, which was far more confrontational and strategic during the talks than in recent history.
The union initiated negotiations with all three automakers at once, breaking from a recent pattern of bargaining with each automaker individually, selecting a lead company to focus efforts on and modeling the remaining deals off that leading tentative agreement.

Read more CNBC auto news

When deals weren’t reached by a Sept 14. deadline, the union launched targeted strikes, plant by plant, as a way to keep the companies off guard and be able to ratchet up pressure, when needed.
At the peak of the work stoppages, roughly 40% of what was then 146,000 UAW members covered under the agreements were either on strike or laid off due to the disruptions.
The new contracts bring into the fold groups of workers such as battery employees and others who were not included in past deals. It’s not immediately clear how any UAW members the new deals will cover.
For the union and its president, Shawn Fain, the deals represent significant economic gains; a path to secure future jobs for union ranks such as those battery plants; and a springboard for organizing efforts at other nonunion automakers operating in the U.S. — a main goal of Fain moving forward.
The union said improvements in the deal are valued at more than four times the gains from the 2019 contract and provide more in base wage increases than workers have received in the past 22 years.
For the companies as well as their investors, the contracts represent the top end of forecast increases in labor costs. While the automakers several times called foul on the union’s tactics, including six weeks of targeted strikes, they should be able to stomach the cost rises. That’s not to say they won’t be seeking offsets to the increases elsewhere in the forms of future investments, restructuring and other means.
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The CDC expedited the release of more than 77,000 additional doses of a new drug designed to protect infants from RSV amid an ongoing shortage of the treatment in the U.S.
The agency’s move to increase the availability of Beyfortus, a monoclonal antibody from Sanofi and AstraZeneca, comes as RSV cases rise in some parts of the country ahead of the holiday season. 
The drug is one of two available treatments in the U.S. that can protect infants from the virus, which is the leading cause of hospitalization among babies nationwide. 

A RSV-infected child receives treatment, as RS-Virus infections spread among children at Missio children’s clinic Moenchberg, in Wuerzburg, Germany, December 2, 2022. 
Heiko Becker | Reuters

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expedited the release of more than 77,000 additional doses of a new drug designed to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus amid an ongoing shortage of the treatment in the U.S.
The CDC’s move late Thursday to increase the availability of Beyfortus, a monoclonal antibody from Sanofi and AstraZeneca that won approval in August, comes as RSV cases rise in some parts of the country ahead of the holiday season. The drug is one of two available treatments in the U.S. that can protect infants from the virus, which is the leading cause of hospitalization among babies nationwide. 

Sanofi and AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the CDC’s announcement.
Hospitals and pediatricians have been struggling to stock Beyfortus due to what Sanofi has described as “unprecedented demand” for the treatment. The shortage – and other issues related to insurance coverage – threatens to prevent infants from receiving critical protection against RSV. 
RSV is a common respiratory infection that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can present as more severe cases in children and older adults.
Each year, the virus kills a few hundred children younger than 5, and 6,000 to 10,000 seniors, according to the CDC. RSV also causes around 58,000 to 80,000 hospitalizations among children younger than 5 years old each year, the CDC said.
The CDC said the additional doses will be distributed immediately to physicians and hospitals through commercial channels and the Vaccines for Children Program, which covers the cost of the shots for uninsured and underinsured kids. 

CDC said the agency, along with the Food and Drug Administration, will continue to be in close contact with the drug manufacturers to ensure availability of additional doses through the end of this year and early 2024 to meet demand.
“CDC and FDA are committed to expanding access to this important immunization so that more parents have peace of mind during the winter virus season,” said the CDC’s principal deputy director, Dr. Nirav Shah, in a statement. 
The U.S. started to see a sharp uptick in RSV cases in the middle of October. Nearly 5,000 cases were detected through testing in the U.S. in the week ended Nov. 4, the highest level since last winter, according to the CDC website. 
The U.S. suffered an unusually severe RSV season last year. Cases of the virus in children and older adults overwhelmed hospitals across the country, largely because the public stopped practicing Covid pandemic health measures that had helped to keep the spread of RSV low. More