Lawmakers on Wednesday lashed out at Facebook in the wake of recent revelations that the social media giant appeared to hide data-sharing partnerships with Chinese firms that U.S. intelligence officials have flagged as security threats.
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee expressed deep frustration that CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood before them earlier this year and publicly pledged to improve security practices but made no mention of how the firm shared user data with at least 60 device manufacturers.
“The bottom line is these revelations are yet another example of questionable business practices by Facebook that could undermine basic consumer privacy,” Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “Remember, less than two months ago, Mr. Zuckerberg appeared in front of our committee and … apologized for his company’s negligence and pledged to do better.”
The latest reports, Mr. Nelson added, made it “hard to know what’s true anymore. And now we learn that Facebook gave Chinese companies believed to be national security risks access to user data. What in the world is next and what in the world is going to protect Americans’ personally identifiable private information?”
On Tuesday the Silicon Valley-based firm admitted it has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including telecom equipment firm Huawei, which U.S. intelligence officials have called a national security threat.
In recent months, Chinese tech and telecom firms have faced intensifying scrutiny from U.S. intelligence officials who worry the outfits are possible portals for foreign espionage.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, South Dakota Republican, and Mr. Nelson, the committee’s ranking Democrat, began demanding answers from Mr. Zuckerberg in a letter they sent Facebook on Tuesday.
The correspondence was written in response to a New York Times report that the manufacturers who shared user data were able to access “user friends data” even if the friends had denied giving permission to share info with third parties.
In their letter, the senators asked if Facebook audited any of the data-sharing partnerships under a 2011 consent order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission, which required the firm to secure consumers’ “express consent” before sharing personal data with third parties.
They also asked if Mr. Zuckerberg wanted to revise his testimony before the committee in April.
Meanwhile Wednesday, the former head of political consultant Cambridge Analytica clashed with British lawmakers investigating the use of Facebook data in election campaigns. That private data scandal earlier this spring forced Mr. Zuckerberg to testify before Congress in Washington.
Alexander Nix told the U.K. Parliament’s media committee that while he was embarrassed at having been caught on camera boasting that he could entrap political figures by compromising them with bribes and Ukrainian women — he denied his firm acted unethically and insisted he was entrapped by unscrupulous, undercover journalists.
Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after former employees alleged that it used personal information harvested from Facebook accounts to target voters during Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Mr. Nix’s testimony comes just days after U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told the European Parliament she was “deeply concerned” about the impact on democracy of the misuse of social media users’ personal information. She said legal systems had failed to keep up with the rapid development of the internet.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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