Amazon has pulled more than 400,000 products after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission filed a complaint against the retail giant. The products in question include flammable sleepwear, hairdryers that can electrocute you, and faulty carbon monoxide detectors. 

While we’re speaking about the world of online retail… You’re not crazy if you question what’s “real” any more. Even the word itself has to be qualified sometimes! But when it comes to product reviews online, it pays to take everything with a grain of salt. Several governments worldwide have been attempting to tackle the problem of “fake reviews” online. Businesses will go to great lengths to get five-star ratings for their products, including fabricating glowing recommendations. But it’s easier said than done.

The Apple app store has removed an app called Fakespot from its store at the request of Amazon. The app was designed to detect fake reviews, but Amazon maintained it was a privacy risk.

We have written before about the current fight by farmers for the right to repair their equipment. The FTC has voted to enforce right-to-repair, saying there is little evidence to “support manufacturers’ justifications for repair restrictions.” Large manufacturers, including such diverse companies as John Deere and Apple, have warned that letting third parties repair their products or people repairing things themselves will lead to reduced safety and breaches of privacy.