The Watchdog
How the tools work, why they exist, and the code behind them — real consumer problems, in plain technical English.
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You don't have to keep calling. File a free complaint with a federal regulator and your US bank is on a 15-day clock to respond — here's how to do it right.
Read article →Your bank's polite, final "no" isn't the end of the road. A free, government-backed arbitrator can overrule it and order up to £455,000 in compensation.
Read article →71% of freelancers have dealt with non-paying clients. Here's the behavioral data on what bad clients look like before the project starts — and a system to score them.
Read article →The supplement industry isn't regulated like medicine. Here's the data on heavy metals, undisclosed drugs, and fairy dusting — and how to audit your own labels.
Read article →More extensions doesn't mean more protection. Here's the architecture problem — and how consolidation fixes it.
Read article →A streaming trial you forgot about can be used to dismiss an unrelated lawsuit years later. Here's how forced arbitration clauses work.
Read article →Most cookie banners are designed to manipulate you into accepting tracking. Here's the code behind the trick.
Read article →The padlock icon doesn't mean your card is safe. Here's the JavaScript technique criminals use to clone your payment data on fully legitimate sites.
Read article →60% of online retailers fail basic pricing transparency laws. Here's the JavaScript behind fake discounts — and the tools that expose it.
Read article →A weekend build using Claude AI to flag scam SMS and emails in real time — the Cloudflare Worker proxy pattern, the prompt, and the one parsing bug that fooled me.
Read article →Flagging fake urgency, trap checkboxes and confirmshaming in real time with pure regex and DOM inspection — no AI, no API calls, works offline.
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