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Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook policy director behind a best-selling memoir about her time at the company, will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing next week. The testimony will be Wynn-Williams first public remarks since Meta initiated emergency arbitration proceedings in an attempt to prevent her from promoting the book. Wynn-Williams upcoming appearance at Congress was confirmed by Senator Josh Hawley, who said in a statement that she would testify about allegations that Facebook cooperated with the Communist regime in China to build censorship tools, punish dissidents, and make American users data available for Chinese use. Big News Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams will testify NEXT WEEK in public, under oath, before my judiciary subcommittee re: her explosive evidence of Facebooks cooperation with the Communist regime in China, including FBs plans to build censorship tools, punish Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 2, 2025 In her book, Careless People, Wynn-Williams recounts Meta executives interactions with world leaders and government officials as Facebooks influence expanded globally in the early 2010s. Her account has resurfaced information about Facebooks attempts to operate in China, and revealed new details about its overtures to Chinese government officials. We do not operate our services in China today. It is no secret we were once interested in doing so as part of Facebooks effort to connect the world, Meta spokesperson Dani Lever said in a statement. This was widely reported beginning a decade ago. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019." Prior to her books publication, Wynn-Williams also filed whistleblower complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice about alleged misconduct at the company. While the precise details of those complaints havent been made public, next weeks hearing will be a significant opportunity for her to speak publicly about what she witnessed. The hearing, titled, A Time for Truth: Oversight of Metas Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress, is scheduled for April 9, at 2:30pm ET.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/careless-people-author-sarah-wynn-williams-will-testify-at-a-senate-hearing-next-week-172509027.html?src=rss
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Googles Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds are on sale via Amazon for just $179. This is a record-low price, as they normally cost $229. This deal is available for multiple colorways, including black, pink, beige and green. These little cuties easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. We admired the comfortable and secure fit and the addition of the Tensor chip to handle audio and ANC processing. They also offer a hands-free way to initiate Gemini AI. However, the main reason we recommend these earbuds is that they sound great. They provide a good low-end, which is tough to do with earbuds, and crunchy highs. Google says it redesigned the entire audio system and it shows. We called out the noticeable improvement over the original Pixel Buds Pro earbuds in our official review. There are plenty of nifty features to set these earbuds apart from the competition. They can detect conversations and automatically adjust audio accordingly. Find My Device support is also included. They offer spatial audio with certain apps. The buds get around eight hours of use per charge, but 30 hours when considering the included charging case. There are only two downsides here. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds are incredibly small, which is cool, that means making adjustments on their equally tiny touch panels can be difficult. Also, the original asking price of $229 is certainly high. This sale alleviates that particular issue. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/googles-pixel-buds-pro-2-are-back-on-sale-for-an-all-time-low-price-164743950.html?src=rss
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TikTok will reportedly face a fine of over 500 million ($553 million) for transferring Europeans' private data to China. Bloomberg said on Thursday that Ireland's data protection commission, which regulates TikTok owner ByteDance's EU operations, could dish out the penalty before the end of April. The fine results from a four-year investigation of TikTok's data handling practices. The probe reportedly concluded that ByteDance broke Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws by transferring private user data to China to be accessed by engineers. The country is known for its widespread, high-tech surveillance. "TikTok tells us that EU data is transferred to the U.S. and not to China, however we have understood that there is possibility that maintenance and AI engineers in China may be accessing data," former Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said in March 2021 when the probe began. Ireland is taking the lead because, under the GDPR, the country where a company's European operations are located oversees compliance and enforcement. ByteDance's European headquarters are in Dublin. Bloomberg says the decision date and amount of the fine aren't yet finalized and could still change. Of course, this isn't even ByteDance's biggest drama unfolding this week. The fate of TikTok's US operations hangs in the balance as it approaches an April 5 deadline to find a buyer or face a ban in America. The list of likely outcomes ranges from finding a buyer (Amazon has even thrown its hat in the ring) to its US investors rolling over their stakes into a new independent global company or the deadline passing with another deadline extension.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tiktok-reportedly-faces-a-%E2%82%AC500-million-fine-for-sending-private-user-data-to-china-162214079.html?src=rss
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