Day: April 17, 2018

Federal Judge Drops the Hammer on Facebook with New Ruling

Source: https://goo.gl/ZHW4ZK
If Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thought last week was bad, this one might be worse.

Before Zuckerberg’s two days of grilling by D.C. lawmakers had even faded from the headlines, the company was back in the spotlight on Monday with a federal judge’s ruling to allow a class action lawsuit against Facebook over a facial recognition feature.

And the damages could be in the billions.

According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled on Monday that a suit against Facebook could proceed under class action status for users in Illinois who sued the company in 2015 alleging Facebook was violating a state law by collecting “biometric information.”

That opens the way for individual users to sue as a group, substantially increasing the potential penalties the company might have to face.

The suit stems from the popular practice of “tagging” photos.

As Bloomberg reported:

“Facebook has for years encouraged users to tag people in photographs they upload in their personal posts and the social network stores the collected information. The company has used a program it calls DeepFace to match other photos of a person. Alphabet Inc.’s cloud-based Google Photos service uses similar technology and Google faces a lawsuit in Chicago like the one against Facebook in San Francisco federal court.”

According to Bloomberg, the suit was initially filed in Illinois, but the California-based Facebook successfully argued to have it moved to San Francisco. The home court advantage didn’t pay off, though.

In his ruling, Donato wrote that “Facebook seems to believe that a class action is not (warranted) because statutory damages could amount to billions of dollars.”
However, he wrote “substantial damages are not a reason to decline Class certification because it is within the Court’s discretion to reduce a liquidated damages award with due process at a later stage of the proceedings.”

And the damages could be substantial indeed. The Illinois law in question, the Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2008, allows for damages up to $5,000 for each time a person’s image is used without consent.

Donato’s ruling creates a potential class of Facebook users in Illinois whose pictures were collected by Facebook after June 7, 2011, under its “Tag Suggestions” feature. The date is when Facebook launched the program.

Given that there were 6 million Facebook users in Illinois at the time, the number of potential violations of the 2008 law is staggering. Multiplied by $5,000 each, the “billions” Donato ruling mentions is easy to imagine.

Zuckerberg’s two days on the hot seat last week in front of House and Senate lawmakers was no doubt extremely uncomfortable (just wearing a tie that long is probably uncomfortable for Zuckerberg.)

But a federal judge’s ruling in what should be the friendly confines of a San Francisco courthouse has to be a lot worse.

The congressional hearings only took a toll on Zuckerberg’s image. Even if the facial recognition case is likely headed for an out-of-court settlement, that hammer Donato dropped hammer on Facebook in Monday’s ruling is going to be landing on the company’s bottom line.

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below!

Donald Trump Writes Tax Day Article, Announces Radical Change To America

Source: https://goo.gl/N31FYc
It’s rare that we get to hear directly from President Trump via the mainstream news.

We are so used to seeing the hatred expressed by most news outlets toward the Commander in Chief. Yet, there are still a few organizations that respect the office and the man.

President Donald Trump addressed the American people, through an article published by USA Today. On Tax Day, the President lays out the massive accomplishments his administration has achieved already. It hasn’t been two years into his first term and Trump has made good on some very big promises.

Despite democrat’s obstruction, the Trump administration has done much to make America great again. In his article, Trump goes over some of the highlights his White House has scored. But the biggest, by far, are the changes made thanks to his historic tax cut bill.

Simply put, Americans of all stripes are winning big. Jobs and the economy are responding.

From USA Today:

This is the last year Americans will fill out outdated, complicated tax forms. In the years ahead, because I signed one of the largest tax cuts in history and the most sweeping tax reform in a generation, many Americans will complete their taxes on a simple, single sheet of paper. Remarkably, Congress had to pass this critical legislation without a single Democrat’s vote.

A typical family of four earning $73,000 a year can expect to see an income tax cut of more than $2,000 when they file their tax return in 2019 — slashing their income tax bill in half. The standard deduction has been nearly doubled, so now twice as much income is earned tax-free…

This year also marks the last time Americans will have to contend with Obamacare’s cruel individual mandate because our tax law repealed it. These penalties largely hit lower-income and middle-class Americans — 80% of the penalties were paid by families making less than $50,000 per year…

On this Tax Day, America is strong and roaring back. Paychecks are climbing. Tax rates are going down. Businesses are investing in our great country. And most important, the American people are winning.

With all the hate spewed by the left, some Americans might not realize how much has changed. Thanks to President Trump, things are actually getting better. The economy is recovering faster than anyone expected. The GDP is on the rise. Businesses are hiring and raising wages. Consumer confidence is reaching new heights.

The biggest change is due to the historic tax cut bill. We haven’t seen taxes go down this much since Reagan’s era. The tax code is being simplified for many families. Next year, they will only have to fill out a single sheet of paper. Incredible.

Thanks to the Trump-led GOP bill, many families’ taxes were cut in half. Already millions of Americans have seen the results. The moment the tax bill was signed into law, taxes went down. Companies gave out bonuses, wage increases, and perks. Americans saw their paychecks get bigger.

Because of that, and his slashing of regulations, businesses are investing in the United States. Companies, both local and from around the world, want to build in America. That means more jobs and opportunity for Americans.

Do you really think this would be happening under Hillary Clinton, aka Obama 2.0? Things looked bleak under Obama. He even said jobs weren’t coming back. It would have only gotten worse, under Hillary “Open Borders” Clinton.

Do you think we would have gotten a tax cut if the Democrats ran Congress? Of course not.

Keep that in mind, come November. If the Democrats regain Congress, all this winning goes away.

BREAKING Florida Mayor Just Pissed Off EVERY Liberal In America… LOOK What He Did!

Source: https://goo.gl/bu9vw5
Jacksonville’s mayor took a firm stand on a controversy Monday after a local business was served with a citation for flying military flags in violation of the city code.

Mayor Lenny Curry directed city staff that military flags should be treated the same as the U.S. flag, the Florida Times-Union reported.

“Let them fly,” Curry tweeted Monday.

His tweet came hours after a city code enforcement officer issued the warning citation to Jaguar Power Sports, threatening to fine the business if it didn’t take down the flags from atop its building within 24 hours.

“Military sign—illegal sign in any district,” the citation said, according to the station.

Fox News reports that in response, Jaguar Power’s store manager went on Facebook to rant about getting the citation and to accuse the code enforcement officer of insulting a customer, a wounded veteran, as she was serving it. He said she told the vet “you did nothing for our country.”

The Jacksonville city worker has been placed on leave after she allegedly told a veteran his service to the United States didn’t matter while giving a business a warning for flying military flags.
The post got almost 8 million views at the time of this publication.

“There’s one thing I’m not going to tolerate and that is disrespect for our military in a military town,” he says in the video. “We should not get cited or ticketed for flying flags representing our country.”

Fox 30 aired surveillance video from Jaguar Power that appears to show the city worker wagging her finger at the veteran who said he questioned her about the citation.

“She turned around at the door and said to me, in a very loud voice that what I did for this country did not matter,” said the veteran who told the station that he wanted to remain anonymous. “I was mad. I don’t take a lot of things personal. I really don’t, but that strikes a chord with me.”
“It just touches home,” said local Navy veteran Lenny Austin. “I’m retired Navy, my son’s retired Army. He fought in Iraq, and we spilled a lot of blood out there for this country, and they want to talk about a flag on top of a building?”

Mayor Curry has promised the city will ‘review employee procedures.’

This veteran may not want the employee fired, but he also doesn’t want this to ever happen again.

“There’s a lot of people on this Earth who aren’t walking here anymore because they gave their life for this country,” he said.

Her alleged comments were under review, the station reported.

Early Tuesday, Fox 30 reported that the code enforcement officer had posted a statement on her Facebook page, apologizing to the veteran.

“Tempers on all side’s flaired (sic) I should never have been unprofessional and disrespectful period,” the post said.
On its Facebook page Tuesday, Jaguar Power thanked Curry for reaching out personally and resolving the matter “in the best possible way.”

VICTORY- LIBERALS ARE PILES OF SH*T.

FILTHY SCUMBAG COMMUNIST FREELOADING GARBAGE

MAKE NO MISTAKE- WE ARE AT WAR WITH THESE FAR LEFT LUNATICS AND WE WILL KICK THEIR LITTLE ASSES.