Whistleblower may have been a bit quiet on the blog this week, but that’s only because I’ve been pounding the pavement, notebook in hand. Check out this weekend’s Star Tribune and startribune.com for a story and video about a confrontation at the White Castle that raises questions about who can get a Slyder at midnight and who can’t. Also, learn about why winning in conciliation court is only the start of trying to get your money back.

Last month, Ted Poetsch contacted the Star Tribune about his ordeal of being boarded in his own house in the Willard-Homewood neighborhood of north Minneapolis. The boards over his front and back doors obstructed his way on two occasions: on May 12, when he tried to get out, and on June 3, when he tried to get back in.

A Whistleblower reader pointed out that despite the city’s claim that this was unprecedented, as recently as 2005 a woman’s body was discovered in a house at 3216 Garfield Avenue South that had been boarded eight months earlier. As my colleague David Chanen reported on Aug. 22, 2005, the reclusive Darlene Pirtle was 79 and had cut off contact with the outside world.

It may never be clear whether the 79-year-old was alive or dead
when the city shut up the tiny house at 3216 Garfield Av., the
Hennepin County medical examiner said.

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Whistleblower figures that protecting privacy on the Internet is a lost cause. I assume that every email I send or online purchase I make is automatically compiled on databases all over the world. Nevertheless, the enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission are still fighting the fight. On Thursday, the FTC announced that Sears Holding Management Company, owned by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Management Corporation, agreed to change its practice of installing tracking software on customers’ computers and destroy data on customers it had collected improperly.

According to the FTC statement and complaint, the company’s explanation of its tracking software was clearly “deceptive.”

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I’m still hunting for Rachel from Cardholder Services, the mostly unwelcome robocaller whose calls have driven people like Allan to their wits’ end. Mitch Katz, public affairs specialist with the Federal Trade Commission, has gotten some calls from her ilk.

“We haven’t brought any cases against those specific product pitches,” Katz told me this week. Still, it’s the same M.O. as the car warranty telemarketers that got whacked by the FTC earlier this month - caller ID blocked, misleading pitch, hang-ups on anybody who asks too many questions.

Katz figures that whoever’s behind these calls did some market research on the most appealing names: Rachel, Heather, Michelle or whatever. “If you spread your net wide enough, you’re bound to catch some fish.”

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