Facebook fallout
Facebook announced Wednesday it is adjusting its privacy settings amid backlash over how the company handles user data.
In a post on the social media platform, two Facebook executives outlined changes to the site’s privacy tools—namely making them easier to find.
“We’ve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed,” wrote Erin Egan, the company’s chief privacy officer, and Ashlie Beringer, its deputy general counsel.
They promised bigger changes are on the horizon: “It’s also our responsibility to tell you how we collect and use your data in language that’s detailed, but also easy to understand. In the coming weeks, we’ll be proposing updates to Facebook’s terms of service that include our commitments to people. We’ll also update our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it.”
The changes come amid growing distrust of the company after the revelation that political data firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked on ads for the Trump presidential campaign in 2016, obtained information on about 50 million U.S. Facebook users.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has participated in a string of media interviews about the incident during the past week but soon will have to answer even more questions.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, and attorneys general from 37 states said this week they are advancing Facebook probes to get to the bottom of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said on Monday he has scheduled a hearing on April 10 to review the issue and invited Zuckerberg to testify.
“The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention, and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use,” Grassley said in a statement. “It will also examine how such data may be misused or improperly transferred and what steps companies like Facebook can take to better protect personal information of users and ensure more transparency in the process.”
Zuckerberg has said he plans to come to Capitol Hill to face lawmakers’ wrath personally. —E.W.
Comments
Brendan Bossard
Posted: Fri, 03/30/2018 02:00 pmDr. Dobson is wrong. We do not need to be "outraged" at Congress's "betrayal." We need to patiently persuade people in this democratic republic.
CaptTee
Posted: Fri, 03/30/2018 11:27 pmFrom 1850 when wives and children were first listed in the Census until 1950, there were citizenship and birthplace questions asked in the Census. So, this is much ado about nothing.