Ocasio-Cortez dings Facebook, Microsoft, Google for 'implicit' support of climate change denial

referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is dinging Facebook, Microsoft and Google for "implicit" support of climate change denial in a letter addressed to the CEOs of the three tech companies. Facebook, Microsoft and Google were "high-level" sponsors of the recent LibertyCon conference in Washington, D.C., which hosted a session "denying established science on climate change," Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said in the joint letter. The congresswomen are asking Facebook, Microsoft and Google to reaffirm their commitment to a "more sustainable future." "Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time, and our commitment to addressing it is unequivocal. For the past decade, we've reduced emissions, invested in renewable energy, supported policies to address climate change and enabled people around the globe to use technology to accelerate progress on this issue," the company said.

Court's Biometrics Ruling Poses Billion Dollar Risk to Facebook, Google

The Supreme Court of Illinois on Friday ruled that an amusement park, Six Flags Great America, must pay damages to a boy for collecting his thumbprint without proper consent. In a 7-0 ruling, the Illinois court agreed with Rosenbach that the purpose of the law, which provides for a $1,000 to $5,000 penalty, is to deter companies misusing consumers' biometrics. This ruling comes as a blow for Google and Facebook, both of which are ensnared in BIPA lawsuits of their own. "The Illinois Supreme Court went out of its way to make clear [the lower court] got the law right. This confusion stems in part from a 2016 Supreme Court ruling called Spokeo, which turned on whether a data broker had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it included false biographical information about individuals.

Facebook, ironically, does better than Apple and Google at complying with GDPR requests

referring to GDPR regulations give European citizens a legal right to see all the personal data held on them, among other rights. But a tech writer requesting data from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google found that the data isn't as easy to understand as it should be …NordVPNThe Verge's Jon Porter conducted the test. For starters, every single file Facebook gives you is an HTML file. Apple provided a mix of different file formats, and didn't make it easy to parse. Other Google data was equally hard to understand.