Congressman Steps Up Pressure On Google, Facebook

crimeandpunishment and other readers noted the US government's increasing pressure on Facebook and Google. On Friday the head of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, sent the two companies a letter asking them to cooperate with any government inquiries. It's not clear exactly what purpose the letter served, other than to make Google's and Facebook's lawyers squirm a bit more than they already were, with Germany and courts and the FTC looking hard in their direction; Conyers did not say his committee will be holding hearings. The FTC just asked Google to hold onto the Wi-Fi data that it says it accidentally collected while snapping Street View photos. And in response to the growing outcry since its F8 conference last month, Facebook offered some simplified privacy controls — though opinions vary on how much the new controls simplify things for users.

Comments

Re:Accidentally or Tactically Aquired data

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Or, you could have just answered his question in a sentence or two.

To do so would have been encouraging intellectual laziness. I expect the average Slashdotter to make a modicum of effort to educate themselves rather than posting a stupid question. In the time it took to ask the question and wait for an answer, the OP could have learned a fair bit and then come back with an interesting question instead of a stupid one.