U.S. Senate panel to seek answers from Facebook about data access report

Mark Zuckerberg

If you're worried about Facebook sharing your data with device makers more than you expect, you're not the only one. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg asking him to answer questions about Facebook's participation with about 60 companies, including Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O), Apple Inc., Blackberry Ltd. (BB.TO), HTC Corp. (2498.TW), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (005930.KS)

They want to know how Facebook distinguishes between hardware companies and application developers, which they have been able to access so far (including through exemptions), and what protects them to prevent abuse and give the user a chance to quit.

Marke and Blumenthal noted that Mark Zuckerberg was not exactly accurate when he told Congress that users had "full control" over how information was shared and how people saw it. Politicians did not limit their investigations to device sharing, either - they wanted to know how Facebook shared other data.

We asked Facebook about this message. However, you have confirmed that the share is only present so that it can provide Facebook to some devices that did not have apps earlier. She confirmed that she had strict control over the confidentiality of the data, and that user information was available only when people agreed to participate. This does not mean that Markey and Blumenthal are likely to satisfy - there is no guarantee that they will take any action, but they clearly want more clear promises of privacy than Facebook has now provided.

Source : engadget