Google honored Stacey Park Milbern with a Google Doodle on the site’s homepage Thursday.

Milbern was a Korean American activist who championed for disability justice.

She was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when she was born.

During the pandemic, Milbern and friends from the disabled community created the Disability Justice Culture Club to help underserved populations, especially those who did not have acces to soap and water, Milbern told KQED.

The group distributed kits with masks, vitamins, gloves and hand sanitizer.

Earlier in her life, Milbern helped pass a law in North Carolina that required schools to teach about the history of disability.

After moving to California, she was the Director of programs at the Center of Independent Living.

She later became part of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

In a video posted by Google, Milbern is remembered for being “incredibly funny, incredibly loving, but also very fierce.”

Milbern died in May of 2020 after experiencing complications during a surgery on her 33^rd birthday.

Thursday would have been her 35^th birthday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-6 on Thursday to advance a bill limiting the way big companies like Amazon, Apple and Google do business.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act targets a practice known as self-preferencing.

"Self-preferencing is mainly intended to describe situations where, if you're a merchant selling a product through an e-commerce platform, and that e-commerce platform is a competitor of yours who offers the same product, the platform somehow induces the consumer to have a preference for its own product," said Tad Lipsky, the director of the Competition Advocacy Program at the Global Antitrust Institute.

"It's really easy to find examples of that tension," Lipsky continued. "For Amazon, it could be any of a whole range of products that they offer themselves. Google, same thing. There are a lot of e-commerce searches on Google sites that can relate to products that Google offers."

The bill does not identify any major companies by name. It says any new rules will apply to companies with at least a billion monthly users, a list which would include companies like Amazon, Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

In 2021, Amazon and Meta were two of the top three companies in terms of spending money to lobby Congress, according to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who spoke at Thursday's hearing.

"They are never going to like this bill," said Sen. Klobuchar. "When companies take them on, they have, for decades, formed an impenetrable shield. They're making a lot of money. They want to maintain and profit and keep their positions as monopoly gatekeepers."

The major tech companies did not comment on Thursday's hearing, but most have raised objections to the legislation moving through Congress.

Amazon has warned third-party sellers that they might be kicked off the marketplaces if the legislation passes.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said during the hearing that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him personally to talk about the bill for more than 40 minutes.

Cruz, and several other senators, said they were advancing the bill for a full Senate vote with the knowledge that more amendments will be made.

"This bill may become law without there ever having been a public hearing about how these particular provisions are supposed to operate," said Lipsky. "They're very extensive, complex provisions. It could lead to a tremendous amount of disruption and intervention in these companies' business, and nobody has established by the usual legislative procedures that there's a need for that to happen."

It's not clear when, or if, the bill will make it onto a crowded Senate calendar for a vote.

If it passes in the Senate, it would still have to clear some hurdles in the House before becoming law. But it has enjoyed some measure of bipartisan support throughout the process, a rarity in an often-divided Congress.

"It's nice and refreshing to see something resembling real debate on substance," said Sen. Cruz. "It's something we as a committee, and we as a Senate, ought to do more often."

Facebook and Google are both forcing some users to switch to two-factor authentication in 2022.

The technology requires people to log in using a password and a secure code sent to their phone or email address. Critics say the decision poses too much of a burden for the average user. Cybersecurity experts insist it’s the least we can do.

“Passwords are breakable. Passwords can be stolen. Passwords can be guessed,” said Dr. Vahid Behzadan, a professor of computer science at the University of New Haven. “By adding two-factor authentication, we are making a successful compromise a little more difficult for the attacker.”

Dr. Behzadan said one of the biggest hurdles in cyber security is apathy from the general public.

“Many do not take security seriously,” he said. “Sharing passwords, writing passwords on a Post-it note and putting it on your desk, or choosing predictable, easy-to-guess passwords.”

Nearly 2 in 5 Americans shared one of their passwords with someone in 2021, according to a survey published in October. A different survey found that half of Americans believed their passwords are secure.

In a May post on the Google blog, the company’s director of product management, identity, and user security called passwords “the single biggest threat to your online security.” He said the company hopes to eliminate passwords altogether in the future.

“The internet is still suffering from that lack of foresight,” said Dr. Behzadan. “Internet protocols that were designed in the 80s are still in use, and they're still a major cause for concern in terms of cybersecurity.”

In the meantime, Google recommends using a password generator to create strong, unique passwords for every account. The company offers a password manager in its Chrome app so users don’t have to memorize everything. Similar products are available through Apple and Microsoft.

Google is cracking down on the ability of climate change deniers to make money off its platforms and to spread climate misinformation through advertisements.

The company said Thursday it will no longer allow advertising to appear alongside "content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change." Google will also prohibit advertisements that deny the reality of climate change.

The policy, which goes into effect next month, applies to any content on YouTube and other Google platforms that refers "to climate change as a hoax or a scam," as well as denials that "greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change."

"We've heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change," Google said in its announcement Thursday. "Advertisers simply don't want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators don't want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos."

Big tech companies have faced increasing pressure in recent years to contribute more to the fight against climate change, including action against climate-related misinformation on their platforms. But as some of the big platforms have shown in the past, consistently implementing a policy after it has been announced tends to be the most challenging part.

Facebook last month announced its own effort to combat climate misinformation, including a $1 million grant to support fact-checking of false climate claims.

Google also rolled out several products earlier this week to increase climate awareness, including a new setting in Google Maps that shows users the most eco-friendly route.

Related video above: US hiring surges in July, unemployment rate drops

Apple, Google and other big companies around the world are continuing to add to their massive piles of cash, a sign that corporations are increasingly nervous about how the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 could damage the global economy.

The world's largest nonfinancial companies had a record $6.85 trillion in cash on their balance sheets as of the end of the second quarter, according to data from S&P Global Ratings. (Banks and other financial firms are usually excluded from corporate cash lists because they are required to hold a lot of money in cash due to the nature of their daily business operations.)

The second-quarter totals are up slightly from the end of 2020. Gareth Williams, global head of corporate research for S&P Global Ratings, estimates the cash level could hit $7.1 trillion by year's end.

Tech giants in particular are hoarding cash. Apple, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet have a combined $460 billion in cash on their balance sheets. Amazon has nearly $90 billion. Facebook has more than $64 billion, too.

It's not just the tech titans who are stockpiling cash.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has a giant mountain of cash that is growing even bigger as the company struggles to find more investing opportunities. Berkshire Hathaway had $144.1 billion on its balance sheet as of the end of June, up from $138.3 billion in December.

Companies have also been taking advantage of low-interest rates to borrow more money, which has helped boost both cash — and debt levels — for blue-chip firms.

The fact that many of these companies are building their cash reserves is partly because of jitters about the state of the markets and economy.

Time for businesses to start spending again?

But many firms are also looking to use their cash to invest for the future.

"We'd thought earlier this year that by this time, companies would be starting to draw down cash," said Christopher Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo.

"But companies are spending on buybacks, dividends and mergers. The capital markets are wide open," Harvey added. "The cost of funding is incredibly cheap so companies are issuing debt and cash is still accumulating."

According to another report by S&P, companies outside of the struggling energy and materials sectors will spend $2.8 trillion on capital expenditures this year. That would be an increase of 15% to an all-time high, with tech firms and utilities leading the way.

But now that the Federal Reserve is widely expected to begin cutting back its bond purchase program later this year and potentially raise short-term interest rates in 2022, there is a sense that companies may stop using cash to borrow even more money.

Debt would become more expensive in a higher rate environment. That means companies may start putting their cash to work in other ways, such as increased investments and potentially more pay raises for employees. That's despite growing concerns about the delta variant.

Companies had built up an "unusual buttress" of cash, said Richard Lane, senior vice president at Moody's. That was due to concerns about liquidity during the worst of the COVID-19 crisis. But it might finally be time to unwind some of the cash instead of just parking it on the balance sheet.

"What happened during the pandemic is that large investment-grade companies were aggressive in refinancing debt or raising new money," Lane said. "As we go through this year, I would expect that cash levels will come down a little bit."

Google has a new feature that could make life easier when it comes to paying to park for Android users.

On Wednesday, the tech company announced on a blog post that users could pay to park on the street or use transit within the Google Maps app.

Google

Through a partnership with Passport and ParkMobile, parking solution services, drivers can pay a parking meter right from Google Maps.
According to Google, users would choose "Pay for Parking," enter their meter number, the amount of time they'll need, and then pay.

To extend the time on the parking meter, Google said you could add directly from the app.

The company added that users would also be able to pull up transit directions and pay for fares ahead of time.

Google said the new feature is available on Android smartphones in more than 400 cities in the United States, including Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C.)

Google said they would add the new feature to iPhones soon, Google said.

Google is taking a step back, recently announcing they won’t track users as they browse the internet after ending support for third-party cookies.

These cookies have been allowing digital advertising and ad tech to thrive.

”That ad is placing a third-party cookie in your browser, so what's happening is that Chrome and other browsers that are doing this, are taking that cookie and they are reselling it to someone else. So that’s what they're saying they are going to stop doing,” said Donald McLaughlin, a cybersecurity consultant.

He said while Google is not going to support third-party cookies, they are still keeping some of your information.

“They're not going to stop tracking you based on your searches or email,” McLaughlin said.

The more information of ours that’s out there, the bigger the push to keep it out of those companies’ hands.

“We see a movement towards more privacy,” he said.

“Surveillance capitalism has been growing over the last 20 years. The technological abilities to frankly spy on people and track their every movement are really profound,” said Dr. Jen Golbeck, Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland.

So what does this mean for your privacy?

“This move by Google suggests some of the big players are starting to think maybe we don't need to track every individual in every way we technically can,” Dr. Golbeck said. “There may be ways to make the money they want and not keep all that individual information”

One concept is to group people together, rather than targeting individuals.

“The idea here I think is to create groups of customers instead of individually identifiable tracking opportunities so they can pre-segment these customer groups for advertisers based on their buying behaviors,” said Melissa Akaka, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Denver.

For ad companies, it’s going to change the way they present those advertisements. For brands, it could change their customer relationships.

“Companies are going to have to really think through who their customers are and how they can build longer lasting relationships with them,” Akaka said.

Although Google is making this change, not many other big tech companies are following suit.

“Apple is really the only other big tech company we see pushing privacy in a really serious way, and frankly more seriously than Google is,” Dr. Golbeck said. “Facebook hasn't really shown an interest in reducing that kind of individual knowledge, that's really the cornerstone of their business at this point.”

She said Google is simply getting ahead of future policy.

“I don’t think the tech companies care what people want. They care about making money. But if people want their privacy protected and they're going to push for regulation that affects the company, they're going to respond in that way and I think they see that coming. There is this new public understanding and push for more privacy,” Dr. Golbeck said.

Video above: 11 things you didn't know Google Maps could do

Ashley Sundquist has been taking simple steps towards advocating for those within her local homeless community by curating resources on an app you already probably use daily: Google Maps.

While speaking with local members of the homeless community in her native Los Angeles, Sundquist realized she could use the platform to help direct those in need to centers where they could find food, shelter and free showers.

"I could immediately see how impossible it would be to navigate all of these websites, especially if someone is already struggling with mental health issues or they have limited access to technology," Sundquist told Mashable.

As word of the curated maps that she was making for her local homeless community got out, people from around the world began bombarding Sundquist with emails inquiring how they could do the same. Sundquist even caught the attention of Google Maps representatives, who were amazed by her ingenuity to solve this far-reaching matter.

"There's just something about having a map that's always there, you can never lose it. All you need is the link," Sundquist tells Mashable.

Interested in setting up a map for your community?

Sundquist recommends that you get to know your homeless community, research shelters and food banks in your city, and check with all organizations about scheduling and transportation access.

Once you have that info, you can follow this step-by-step guide to make a curated Google Maps list of your own to share across your social media platforms.