Mark Ryland, director of security engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS), said he was unaware of news reports about the company’s use of automated systems to monitor workers in fulfillment centres and make termination decisions; its employment of anti-union practices; a data breach that exposed customers’ names and email addresses before Black Friday in 2018; and the details of its data-sharing agreement with Facebook. Committee members also asked about Amazon’s views on antitrust policy and actions; Ryland repeatedly noted that he was not an expert on competition law. Executives from Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla also testified in Ottawa on the final day of the global group’s second meeting. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, AWS CEO Andy Jassy, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Mozilla CEO Chris Beard were originally invited to testify, but none of them attended. (The Logic)

Talking point: Committee members were visibly frustrated with Ryland’s responses. “This is the reason that we asked Mr. Bezos to come—he can answer those kinds of questions,” said Bob Zimmer, co-chair and Conservative MP. Amazon wasn’t the only one to disappoint the committee. Apple’s Erik Neuenschwander, manager of user privacy, was similarly unable to address business-model questions. Still, Bezos got off easy compared to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. The Facebook leaders’ absence was the subject of numerous comments during Tuesday’s hearings, and Canada’s ethics committee voted unanimously to issue them a formal summons—a symbolic move that grabbed international headlines.