Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, have sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg demanding answers on Facebook’s latest data scandal.
Earlier this week it was revealed that Facebook shared user data with “at least 60” phone manufacturers including Huawei, a company linked to the Chinese government and flagged as a national security threat by the CIA, FBI, and NSA.
A Democrat lawmaker has since accused Zuckerberg of lying to Congress when he told them that users had “complete control” over who sees their data on the platform.
Among the questions asked by Sens. Thune and Nelson, which can be read in full here, is whether Zuckerberg would like to amend his statement on this, given that the New York Times reported that phone manufacturers had access to data from Facebook users’ friends even when those friends denied them the permission to share their data with third parties.
The Senators also asked Zuckerberg if Facebook verified whether the phone companies complied with the social network’s rules on data-sharing, and if there was even any method to check.
The Senators also demanded transparency: a full list of the device manufacturers that Facebook granted data access to, including manufacturers with whom it has since ended partnerships with.
The letter requests a response from Zuckerberg by no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 18, 2018.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter, Gab.ai and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
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