Facebook to face renewed privacy lawsuit over user tracking

A federal appeals court on Thursday revived nationwide litigation accusing Facebook Inc of violating users' privacy rights by tracking their internet activity even after they logged out of the social media website.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Facebook users could pursue several claims under federal and California privacy and wiretapping laws.

A spokeswoman for Facebook said the proposed class action was without merit, and the Menlo Park, California-based company will continue defending itself.

Facebook users had accused the company of quietly storing cookies on their browsers that tracked when they visited outside websites containing "like" buttons, and then selling personal profiles based on their browsing histories to advertisers.

US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California had dismissed the lawsuit in 2017, including claims under the federal Wiretap Act, and said the users lacked legal standing to pursue economic damages claims.

But in Thursday’s decision, Chief Judge Sidney Thomas wrote for a 3-judge panel that users had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and had sufficiently alleged a "clear invasion" of their right to privacy.


The panel also said California law recognized a right to recoup unjustly earned profits, regardless of whether a defendant's conduct directly caused economic harm.

"Facebook's user profiles would allegedly reveal an individual's likes, dislikes, interests, and habits over a significant amount of time, without affording users meaningful opportunity to control or prevent the unauthorized exploration of their private lives," Thomas wrote.

Citing Facebook’s data use policy, he also said the plaintiffs "plausibly alleged that Facebook set an expectation that logged-out user data would not be collected, but then collected it anyway."

-Reuters-

Google set to launch privacy tools to limit online tracking: report

Alphabet Inc's Google is set to roll out a dashboard-like function in its Chrome browser to offer users more control in fending off tracking cookies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cookies are small text files that follow internet users and are used by advertisers to target consumers on the specific interests they have displayed while browsing.

While Google's new tools are not expected to significantly curtail its ability to collect data, it would help the company press its sizable advantage over online-advertising rivals, the newspaper said.

Google's 3 billion users help make it the world's largest seller of internet ads, capturing nearly a third of all revenue, ahead of rival Facebook Inc's 20 percent, according to research firm eMarketer.

Total digital ad spending in the United States will grow 19 percent to nearly $130 billion in 2019, according to eMarketer.

Google has been working on the cookies plan for at least 6 years, in stops and starts, but accelerated the work after news broke last year that personal data of Facebook users was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

The company is mostly targeting cookies installed by profit-seeking third parties, separate from the owner of the website a user is actively visiting, the Journal said.

Apple Inc in 2017 stopped majority of tracking cookies on its Safari browser by default and Mozilla Corp's Firefox did the same a year later.

Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

After the cronut, cafes bet on crookie, croclair

MANILA – While some bakeries attempt to replicate the success of the “cronut” in New York, other cafés have come up with their own pastries to compete with the croissant-donut hybrid.

One such treat is the “crookie,” a pastry is made by stuffing crushed Oreo cookies into a croissant dough, according to a report from ABC News, who noted that the sweet treat was invented in the Clafouti Patisserie et Café in Toronto, Canada.


Each crookie is priced at $2.70 – lower than Dominique Ansel’s $5 cronuts – with customers placing large orders, according to Clafouti.

But it has yet to catch up with the hype of the cronut, which has been trademarked by Ansel after inspiring long lines, copycats and scalpers, who sell the hybrid pastry for as much as $100.

Manila gets a taste of the crookie

As with the cronut, Wildflour Café + Bakery in Taguig City was quick to spot the crookie trend as it recently came up with its own take on the pastry.

Early this month, Wildflour announced that it is offering crookies at P120 each, the same price as its croissant-donuts.

The relatively new dining spot in Taguig City has been attracting even more customers because of its croissant-donuts, which now come in mixed berry and dulce de leche flavors on top of the usual chocolate and strawberry.


At least three more establishments in Manila have followed suit, each offering its own version of the hybrid pastry.

Such is the popularity of the cronut that Enderun Colleges will be holding a special class on how to make the "it" pastry. Chef Marc Chalopin will conduct a demo on July 27 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the school's culinary amphitheater for P1,500 per participant.



Meanwhile, Mesclun Bistro at Serendra, also at the Bonifacio Global City, has created an entirely new hybrid, which it calls "croclair," a cross between a croissant and an eclair.

The croclair actually looked like a croissant in terms of its shape, but is covered in chocolate. But like the eclair, it comes with a creamy custard filling.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com