April 11, 2018

Zuckerberg Testimony: Facebook CEO Faces Congress, 2nd Day Live Coverage

Mark Zuckerberg faces congress in second day of hearings
Mark Zuckerberg faces congress in second day of hearings

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing House questioning for the second day today to comment on the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and Facebook's role in election meddling. 

Earlier this year, it was discovered that data from 50 million Facebook users was acquired by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica without their permission. The revelation has shed new light on data responsibility, as Facebook suffered from considerable backlash from consumers through the #DeleteFacebook movement. 

Keep checking back as we continue our live coverage and analysis of the Zuckerberg testimony:

10:14 AM: When asked if Facebook will change user default settings to be more privacy protective, Zuckerberg says, "Yes."

10:18 AM: "Is there any reason why we can't have a data sharing prevention for children under 18?" Zuck points to number of measures to protect child safety, including the flagging of inappropriate content for minors, but says teens can opt-in to share things publicly. 

10:23 AM: "It's inevitable for there to be some kind of regulation...but we need to make sure it's the right regulation." - Mark Zuckerberg

10:30 AM: Zuckerberg says Facebook began notifying users who had been affected by the Cambridge Analytica breach. 

10:41 AM: When asked if Facebook is willing to change its business model to help better protect consumers, Zuckerberg says, "I'm not sure what you mean." In other words, would Facebook consider switching to a paid platform, sans ads. 

10:46 AM: Clarifying cross-tracking on devices: "We track certain info for security reasons and for ad reasons. For security, when people who aren't signed into FB, we can't scrape information. For ads, we provide an ad network that third-parties can run in order to make money. Anyone can turn off ad targeting, but we don't turn off measures for security." 

10:51 AM: Facebook will deploy AI tools to detect foreign actors attempting to alter election outcomes. "It's an arms race [with Russia] and we're making ground." 

10:56 AM: Consumers can know what data is being acquired when logging into third-party app but users don't always pause to view the details.

10:59 AM: Congressman points to GDPR and the control of consumer data by consumers -- Will Facebook not only make the same settings available, but the same protections available? "Yes, we will make [GDPR] protections available for all American citizens," says Zuckerberg. 

11:00 AM: One of the tenants of GDPR is portability. Does Facebook plan to comply with the GDPR portability requirement? "Consumers can download and move their data anywhere they want, but we're updating those settings to make them more available." 

11:01 AM: GDPR also gives users the right to reject the processing of their personal data for marketing purposes, including micro-targeting for ad purposes. Will the same right to reject be implemented for US consumers? "I'm not sure how we will implement that yet," says Zuckerberg.