Facebook, seen by some as an arm of the Democratic Party, is now facing friendly fire as a Democratic congressman has charged that company CEO Mark Zuckerberg lied to Congress during the hearing weeks ago. This follows reports that Facebook is sharing massive amounts of user data with other companies, contrary to what Zuckerberg originally testified.
“Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook,” David Cicilline (RI-1) tweeted on Sunday.
According to a report from The Hill, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee added, “This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable.”
The response comes after a Sunday-edition of the New York Times (NYT) detailed the decade-long mission for Facebook to establish connections with over 60 manufacturers. The “far-reaching data partnerships” include Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Samsung, and many others.
The partnerships allowed device makers to obtain Facebook user data like relationship status, religious, and political leanings from users and also allowed for the sharing of the data of a user’s Facebook friends and events they were attending.
NYT found, “the partnerships…raise concerns about the company’s privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users’ friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. Some device makers could retrieve personal information even from users’ friends who believed they had barred any sharing.”
Although Facebook began to end these partnership in April, the FTC is now investigating the tech giant over whether it violated this consent decree following revelations of how it handled user data spurred on by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Britain-based research firm obtained data on at least 87 million Facebook users, and after news broke, the company shut down operations.
On Monday, Facebook pushed back against the NYT report, claiming they never abused user information.
“These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences,” wrote Ime Archibong, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships.
He added, “Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends.”
Nevertheless, the access Facebook’s partners have to user data go even further. Partners can obtain data about a user’s Facebook friends, even those who have denied Facebook permission to share information with any third parties. Several former Facebook software engineers and security experts agree that the ability override sharing restrictions is a problem.
Privacy consultant and former FTC chief technologist Ashkan Soltani said, “It’s like having door locks installed, only to find out that the locksmith also gave keys to all of his friends so they can come in and rifle through your stuff without having to ask you for permission.”
In the Congressional hearing, Zuckerberg testified, “Every piece of content that you share on Facebook you own…You have complete control over who sees it and how you share it.” However, it seems that not all of what the Facebook CEO said to lawmakers in Washington was the truth, according to numerous reports surrounding the actual breadth and depth of third-party control over user information.
