Facebook 'being investigated by FTC'

Risingbd Desk: The US Federal Trade Commission is reported to be investigating Facebook after allegations that 50 million users' private information was misused by a political consultancy firm.

Cambridge Analytica (CA), hired by the Trump campaign in the 2016 US election, has been accused of taking the personal data unknown to users.
CA head Alexander Nix has now been suspended by the company board.

The move came amid allegations the firm may have broken US electoral law.
CA, which is based in London, denies any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Facebook's stock has continued to slide, following a steep decline on Monday.

The British and European parliaments have called on Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence to them., and the social network is due to brief congressional aides on Wednesday.

Mr Zuckerberg did not attend a Facebook staff briefing on the crisis at its Californian headquarters on Tuesday, which was led by deputy general counsel Paul Grewal instead, the Daily Beast news site reports.

The criticisms of Facebook, and in particular Mark Zuckerberg, have never been louder or angrier.

Employees at the company were addressed this morning not by their chief executive, but by one of the company's top lawyers. A Facebook spokeswoman said both Mr Zuckerberg and his deputy Sheryl Sandberg were too busy to address staff themselves.

The firm added it was "outraged to be deceived" by Cambridge Analytica. A sign, perhaps, that Facebook is doubling down on the view that it is the victim.
On Wednesday Facebook will send representatives to Washington to answer to Congress - the first step on what is set to be something of a world tour of explaining to investigators how on Earth this activity was able to happen.

The loss to Facebook's value has been more than $60bn (£43bn) since this news broke. The wider impact for Silicon Valley is that it seems the era of tech companies essentially regulating themselves is perhaps coming to a dramatic end.

The FTC is an independent agency of the US government tasked with protecting American consumers.

It is investigating whether Facebook violated the terms of a 2011 decree regarding the social network's privacy protections, an unnamed source "familiar with the agency's thinking and not authorised to speak on the record" told the Washington Post newspaper.

This was confirmed by a Bloomberg news agency report, quoting an unnamed "person familiar with the matter".

Under the 2011 decree, Facebook must notify users and obtain their permission before data about them is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established, the Washington Post says. Facebook was also subjected to 20 years of privacy checkups to ensure compliance.

Facebook confirmed on Tuesday that it was expecting to receive a letter from the FTC with questions about the data acquired by CA. However, it also said it had had no indication of a formal investigation, Reuters news agency reports.

"We remain strongly committed to protecting people's information," Facebook deputy chief privacy officer Rob Sherman said. "We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have."

In its statement on Tuesday, it said: "The entire company is outraged we were deceived. We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens."

Source: BBC


risingbd/March 21, 2018/Mukul