SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Congress has plenty of questions for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who will testify on Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday about the company's ongoing data-privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.
Facebook is struggling to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history — allegations that a Trump-affiliated data mining firm may have used ill-gotten user data to try to influence elections. Zuckerberg and his company are in full damage-control mode, and have announced a number of piecemeal technical changes intended to address privacy issues.
But there's plenty the Facebook CEO hasn't yet explained. Here are five questions that could shed more light on Facebook's privacy practices and the degree to which it is really sorry about playing fast and loose with user data — or just because its practices have drawn the spotlight.
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QUESTION: You've said you should have acted years ago to protect user privacy and guard against other abuses. Was that solely a failure of your leadership, or did Facebook's business model or other factors create an obstacle to change? How can you ensure that Facebook doesn't make similar errors in the future?
CONTEXT: Zuckerberg controls 59.7 percent of the voting stock in Facebook. He is both chairman of the board and CEO. He can't be fired, unless he fires himself. "At the end of the day, this is my responsibility," he told reporters
Zuckerberg, however, has been apologizing for not doing better on privacy
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP: Does Facebook need a chief privacy officer with the authority to take action on behalf of users?
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QUESTION: Who owns user data on Facebook, the company or the users? If it's the latter, why shouldn't Facebook allow people to opt out of being targeted by ads?
CONTEXT: Facebook collects data on its own (your likes, which ads you click on, etc.); keeps data you share yourself (photos, videos, messages); and correlates data from outside sources to data on its platform (email lists from marketers, and until recently, information from credit agencies).
Who owns what is a difficult question to answer, and Facebook clearly hasn't been good at explaining it. While you can download everything the company knows about you, it doesn't really allow you to take "your" data to a rival.
Sandberg
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP: Don't other businesses allow some users to opt out of ads? Why can't Facebook charge users who want ad-free experiences the way Hulu and YouTube do?
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QUESTION: Facebook has made connecting with others and sharing information dead simple. Why haven't you put similar effort into making your privacy controls equally easy to use?
CONTEXT: Facebook has updated its privacy settings
The latest
Facebook makes many pieces of information your profile public by default; to lock them down, you have to change those settings yourself.
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP: Does this legacy suggest the government needs to step in with clear and universal privacy rules?
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QUESTION: Did Facebook threaten legal action against the Guardian newspaper in the U.K. regarding its reporting on the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
CONTEXT: John Mulholland, editor of the Guardian US,
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP: Do you still stand behind Facebook's actions here?
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QUESTION: Have you spoken with critics, including some former Facebook investors and colleagues, who argue that the company's service has become an addictive and corrosive force in society?
CONTEXT: Sean Parker, Facebook's first president,
Brian Acton, a co-founder of WhatsApp (acquired by Facebook in 2014), recently recommended that people should
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP: If not, why not?
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Source : AP
