Facebook misses Senate deadline on privacy
Facebook Inc. missed a deadline to respond to questions from two top U.S. senators on its sharing of user data with device makers, the latest delay by the social network in addressing lawmakers’ queries about its privacy lapses.
Sens. John Thune and Bill Nelson, respectively the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, asked the company in a June 5 letter to answer five questions on data sharing with telecom companies by the end of the business on Monday. The company told the committee it would not meet the requested response date.
Facebook has said it needed to share the information to power versions of its service that were common before it deployed formal phone apps, and that the data was largely stored on the phones that accessed it.
Still, the agreements prompted criticism from Congress in light of the inclusion of Chinese companies in the partnerships, as well as earlier revelations that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
