Latest news with #RhiannonWhite
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Consumer Defense Law Group Saves Sacramento Home Via Surplus Trustee Sale Reversal
SACRAMENTO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 25, 2025 / / -- Consumer Defense Law Group secured a powerful win for Sacramento homeowners Michael Andrews and Rhiannon White, who reclaimed ownership of their foreclosed property through a surplus trustee sale reversal. This outcome, once an impossibility in their eyes, became reality because Consumer Defense Law Group believed they could get the home back and acted decisively. Michael Andrews and Rhiannon White lost their family's home to foreclosure on June 17, 2025. Despite purchasing the property in 2011 for $72,000 and its current value exceeding $326,000, financial hardships forced them behind on mortgage payments. The property entered the foreclosure process when a Notice of Default recorded on April 2023, followed by a Notice of Trustee Sale in September 2024. On the June 17, 2025 auction date, the home went up for sale with a published bid of $162,113, opening at $234,500, and ultimately selling to the highest bidder for $249,000. This generated $86,887 in surplus funds – the amount remaining after the sale price exceeded the total owed to the lender. Many firms focus solely on helping homeowners retrieve these surplus funds for a percentage, but Andrews and White's priority wasn't the money; it was saving their family home. The homeowners contacted the Nonprofit Alliance of Consumer Advocates, a Loss Mitigation Nonprofit Organization focused on Homeownership Preservation and Affordable Housing. The Nonprofit quicky identified the clients need to be referred to Consumer Defense Law Group, a highly skilled Wrongful Foreclosure Litigation Law Firm, to explore his legal options, and Consumer Defense Law Group was retained to explore all possible legal avenues. Consumer Defense Law Group promptly issued a formal demand letter, meticulously outlining the strong factual basis and alleged procedural irregularities in the foreclosure process. This powerful demand convinced the relevant parties to reverse the sale. Ultimately, through diligent effort and robust negotiations, Consumer Defense Law Group reversed the sale, and homeowners recovered their home without the need for court intervention. This pivotal case highlights the critical importance of proper legal assistance and aggressive advocacy in reversing a trustee sale. It powerfully demonstrates homeowners can fight back against foreclosure actions and regain their properties, even when most other companies only offer limited services like surplus fund retrieval. J. De La Vega NonProfit Alliance of Consumer Advocates +1 855-622-2435 email us here Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook YouTube Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Daily Mirror
16-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'We follow strict protocols' - popular period tracking app hits back at backlash
A report from the University of Cambridge has claimed that menstrual apps are a risk to privacy, but period tracking app Clue has hit back, detailing exactly how they use users' data After the damning report from University of Cambridge that select period tracking apps are harvesting and selling user information, popular tracking app Clue has set the record straight. Clue is a science-based, data-driven menstrual and reproductive health app, trusted by 10 million people globally, and despite their mission to help women - has come under scrutiny following the release of a report from University of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre. The report said the tracking apps were a "gold mine" for consumer profiling. By collecting customer data, it could allow companies to produce targeted advertisements linked to information users think is kept private. Under EU and UK law, the data from these period-tracking apps comes under a special category, which means it should have special protections from being sold on - but this report highlights that consent options are not always enforced or implemented. This then allows the data can be sold to advertisers and tech giants such as Facebook and Google. However Clue has assured users the app follows "strict protocols" when it comes to how data is managed, and said keeping their users safe is at their "core". Clue CEO Rhiannon White told The Mirror: "We adhere to the very strict standards the European GDPR sets for data security and storage. This applies to the data we hold regardless of where in the world our users are located. Our policy and firm commitment is that no matter where our users are in the world, we will never allow their private health data to be used against them. "We have never disclosed such data to any authority, and we never will. Anything that does not fundamentally serve female health and the empowerment of people with cycles would be at odds with our principles at Clue," she added. One of Clue's missions is to help close the research gap in women's health and White assured that when using the data for research, Clue takes the "utmost care and follow strict protocols". She said gaining insight from de-identified data is an "important part of our mission" because the historical lack of data for research into female health is a major contributing factor to the health gap, so will share this anonymised data with researchers from leading global institutions, such as Stanford and University of Oxford. "It is up to each user whether they want to help to close that data gap by consenting to their de-identified data being used for this purpose, which is why we offer granular consent options," and added: "This de-identified data is only shared with user consent and all research projects are carefully vetted against our strict criteria to ensure they're in the interest of our community. Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you! "We have never and will never sell or share sensitive data with advertisers, insurers or data brokers. That is not our business model -– our business model is direct to consumer subscriptions, ensuring that our users are our customers, and we serve them." Rhiannon further detailed that the third party tools Clue uses to work are "vetted and assessed" against the strictest GDPR standards and assured they transparently detail exactly what data is handled by each tool and how in the privacy policy. "Our servers are located in the EU in Germany and in Ireland. When your data is sent between your device and our Clue servers, we use encrypted data transmission, which scrambles the information being sent so it's unreadable. Doing this increases the security of your data transfer," she added. But the researchers from the Cambridge study warn that by collecting information, it could allow companies to produce targeted advertisements linked to information users think is kept private. They also worry that if this data gets into the wrong hands, it could even affect access to abortion, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking as well as risks to job prospects. "There are real and frightening privacy and safety risks to women as a result of the commodification of the data collected by cycle tracking app companies," said Dr Stefanie Felsberger, the lead author of the report. The report calls on organisations such as the NHS and other health bodies to create a "safer" alternative that is trustworthy.
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We wanted to tell the wider story': play highlights impact of ‘spycops' scandal
There's one moment from the public inquiry into undercover police officers – known as 'spycops' – that sticks in the theatre director Rhiannon White's mind. It was during the questioning of Bob Lambert, an officer who deceived at least four women into sexual relationships in the 1980s, and fathered a child with one of them. 'Lambert's lack of attention to detail was shocking; the whole thing seemed like a process to him. Whereas Belinda Harvey, one of the women, meticulously remembered every single detail of their relationship, every feeling, every thought. She said she was in her early 20s when she met him, and she was basically groomed into activism by him. This is someone whose life was completely turned inside out and upside down by the state. This is someone who was raped by the state.' White, the artistic director of Cardiff and Bradford-based theatre company Common/Wealth, is directing a new play based on the scandal and inquiry. Entitled Demand the Impossible, the play – written by Taylor Edmonds and initially commissioned by National Theatre Wales – interrogates police injustice and the infiltration of more than 1,000 political groups between 1968 and 2010. The play has been developed in close collaboration with campaign groups including Undercover Research Network and Police Spies Out of Lives, drawing on the victims' enormous sense of betrayal and their ongoing fight for justice. 'My own friends who were part of the Cardiff Anarchist Network [CAN] were spied on by the police,' White said. 'My friend Tom Fowler found out his best friend of four years was an undercover copper called Mark 'Marco' Jacobs.' According to CAN, Jacobs took minutes at meetings and made newsletters and banners, but in reality he was gathering intelligence, disrupting the group's activities, and using it to infiltrate other groups, including a European network of activists. 'Tom was frustrated because a lot of people were taking on the spycops story and sensationalising it without talking to the activists involved. So we decided to put on our own play,' White said. 'We wanted to tell the wider story of how activism has been affected. The impact on society has been massive. Some of the changes that historically activists have campaigned for, and which are now enshrined in law, like the right of women to have bank accounts, or animal rights, were slowed down because of the effects of infiltration. The spycops turned people against each other, pulled them apart. 'We also wanted to ask: how do we go beyond that state interruption, to really demand a better world and be defiant with it?' The spycops scandal, one of the most closely guarded secrets in British policing, has been the subject of extensive reporting, spearheaded by the Guardian since 2010. At least 144 undercover officers in deployments typically lasting four years were sent to infiltrate mainly leftwing and progressive groups, and at least four of the undercover officers are known or alleged to have fathered children with women they met during their deployments. Fowler, who hosts the Spycops Info podcast, said it was challenging to express 'how fundamental the impact of the infiltration of progressive social movements has been, not just on the individuals who were targeted but also on society at large. 'We are in Britain all haunted by successive governments' decisions to suppress dissidents on the left and allow the far right to flourish – so much so that through the vetting and the blacklisting, nobody with any serious leftwing credentials gets into any positions of influence within society, whilst those on the right are all around us. 'I really hope the play serves as a glimpse into just how dystopian this country has become,' he added. Demand the Impossible premieres at the Corn Exchange, Newport, from 6 to 13 October 2025.
Daily Mirror
30-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'We're empowering women's health - new police guidance pushes us back'
Clue CEO Rhiannon White speaks to the Mirror about the detrimental effects of the new police guidance, which allows for period tracking apps to be checked should police suspect an illegal abortion We're deep into our digital era. Kids are forming relationships with AI chat bots, shops and services are going purely online and healthcare is following suit, as a new AI tool is being developed for the NHS which seeks to predict who is about to fall ill. And so it is no surprise that the digital revolution on menstruation apps has arrived. For the past decade, period tracking apps have replaced the traditional calendar for tracking the menstrual cycle. I remember marking X's on my wall calendar until the age of 16, before downloading Flo and keeping track digitally. According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 50 million women worldwide use period tracking apps. Of the big three - Flo, Clue and Period Tracker - there are 250 million downloads combined, as per a University of Oxford study. As a teen, this private and anonymous digital space was a godsend, as my GP was only referred to in emergencies for anything regarding my menstrual cycle. As I grew older, I was usually brushed off by my doctors for any period related issue - and I know I'm not alone in that experience. My period tracking app - with everything from on-hand expert advice and content about women's bodies and sexual health, to personalised advice regarding my menstrual cycle - helped to fill a huge information gap in my life. So when new guidance revealed that police would have access to this safe space should they suspect an illegal abortion, it felt like something special had been ripped away. It is another form of surveillance women would have to submit to. The guidance, quietly released in by the National Police Chiefs' Council in January, states that women who experience a sudden unexpected pregnancy loss, if they suspect a miscarriage, stillbirth or early labour is the result of an illegal abortion could be investigated by the police. The guidance further states that women could have their homes searched for evidence of abortion drugs and their phones seized for their search history, period tracking apps or fertility apps checked for evidence of whether they were aware of their pregnancy. The Mirror heard from popular period tracking apps Flo and Clue, who said they were "shocked" and "outraged" over the new guidance. Now, in an exclusive interview with Rhiannon White, CEO of period tracking app Clue, the detrimental effects of the new guidance were brought to the surface. 'What I find so upsetting about all of this is that it perpetuates the huge gap in women's health,' White told The Mirror. 'There's a lot of talk about the diagnosis gap, the treatment gap and the pain gap, but at the root of all of this is a data gap.' White explains that women's health has long been an afterthought, a prime example being that women weren't mandated to be included in clinical trials until 1993, as stated in the NIH. 'Even today, 75% of trials don't include women in them and those that do include women don't disaggregate the data by sex, leaving the impact on women unclear. And 80% of drugs that are withdrawn post-market are because of unexpected side effects on women. We don't know the most basic information,' she added. Clue is working to fill the data gap, with the permission of women who use the app to use their data to research health issues like PMS, endometriosis and other glaring women's health issues that seem to be ignored. 'If we don't do [the research], no one else is doing it for us, so I can't tell how upset I am as the new guidance just pushes us back even further," White said. To understand the data gap in women's health further, you only have to look at the eight-year long NHS waiting list for an endometriosis diagnosis as one prime example. According to the charity Endometriosis UK, as of 2024, it takes an average of eight years and 10 months to get a diagnosis of endometriosis. Knowing that the police guidance could deter women from tracking their symptoms and, in turn, contributing to what could be lifesaving research in the long run not only affects our gender, but also our society. 'The horrible truth is that reproductive surveillance has been a feature of female life forever, but the possibility of using this data to help (when it's of course properly anonymized and people are given permission) to push forward the research gap is really huge,' White says. 'It strengthens everyone's health when women are healthy.' The new police guidance unnecessarily pushes back on the progression of women's health going digital. According to 2024 research by Bupa, women have embraced digital healthcare, with 73% of women open to using technology to improve their health and wellbeing, and Rhiannon has seen this too through her work at Clue. She said: 'We really see a very powerful opportunity in supporting women and empowering women in that respect and taking charge of their health because bluntly we have to because no one else is going to do it.' In the face of increased reproductive surveillance, worrying developments around women's bodily autonomy, and mounting societal pressures, White hopes women can filter out the noise with one mission: to protect their autonomy and trust their own instincts. 'I just want women to be able to choose what's best for them and have the information so they can make those choices,' White concludes.
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Period apps 'outraged' at new guidance to search women's phones if they miscarry
Leaders of period tracking apps Flo and Clue have shared their thoughts on the new guidance allowing police to seize a woman's phone and check their period tracking app if she miscarries Popular period tracking apps have revealed that they are "shocked" and "outraged" over the new guidance from the National Police Chiefs' Council, allowing police to check a woman's period tracking apps she experiences pregnancy loss. The guidance, quietly released in January by the NPCC states that women who experience a sudden unexpected pregnancy loss, if they suspect a miscarriage, stillbirth or early labour is the result of an illegal abortion could be investigated by the police. The guidance further states that women could have their homes searched for evidence of abortion drugs and their phones seized for their search history, period tracking apps or fertility apps checked for evidence of whether they were aware of their pregnancy. According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated 50 million women worldwide use period tracking apps, and of the big three - Flo, Clue and Period Tracker - there are 250 million downloads combined, as per a University of Oxford study. Rhiannon White, CEO of Clue, told the Mirror that they were "shocked and outraged" at the UK police's development and clarified that Clue "have never, and will never, disclose private health data to any authority." White said: "We have spoken loudly on this subject, particularly in the US since Roe Vs Wade was overturned in 2022. This same position applies to every region around the world. As a business, we have built our foundations on protecting women's rights to data privacy, body autonomy and health equity. We want to provide some clear and immediate actions women can do today to protect themselves better, alongside knowing our continuing commitment to protecting Clue members and their data privacy." White confirmed that Clue members can request to have their personal data deleted at any time, explaining that "members will always have full control and autonomy over their own personal information." "We have never and will never share health data with authorities. We will aggressively challenge any such requests and will never allow our members' data to be used against them," the statement concludes. Similarly, Sue Khan, Vice President of Privacy at Flo Health told The Mirror: "Women deserve to be able to use technology to learn more about their bodies and their personal health, without fearing their data will be unjustly used or taken in a way they have not agreed upon." Khan added: "Not only do these actions breed fear and hostility for women who are already going through an undoubtedly traumatic medical experience, they set a dangerous precedent for weaponizing technology built to serve women's needs." She ended her statement by encouraging users to protect their privacy further by implementing the apps' Anonymous Mode, "a first-of-its-kind technology that gives you the option to access the Flo Health app without your name, email address, or any technical identifiers being associated with your health data. This means nobody, not even Flo, could identify you if pressed.' A spokesperson for the NPCC told The Standard that an investigation would only be initiated where there is credible information to suggest criminal activity. They said: "This would often be because of concerns raised from medical professionals.' They also told The Observer that unexpected pregnancy loss was not 'routinely investigated' and 'any investigation of this nature will always be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion'. If you are pregnant or a new mother and you are in crisis, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7 in English and Spanish. Call or text the hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
