Reps. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.),
co-chairs of the House Privacy Caucus want Facebook's CEO to answer a lot
of questions in the wake of a Wall Street
Journal report of major privacy breaches in the social network powerhouse.
"Given the number of current users, the rate at
which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users,
combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place
in Facebook's trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a
cause for concern," they wrote in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
WSJ
reported that tens of millions were affected by third-party applications that
gathered personally identifiable information on users.
Calling it cause for concern, and pointing to
pending privacy legislation that deals with how to protect consumer information
online, they sought answers to a dozen-and-a-half questions, including exactly
how many people were affected, what was the nature of the information, how
many third parties got access to the info, have there been other breaches,
will Facebook delete the info from databases or ad companies who got the
data, and what it plans to do to make sure users have "better
control" over their info.
They gave the company a deadline of Oct. 27.
