Tag Archives: Personal Information

Facebook CEO starts second day of U.S. congressional hearings

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is surrounded by members of the media as he arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees joint hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Milli

By Dustin Volz and David Ingram

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, facing more questions from lawmakers about data privacy at the world’s largest social media network.

The 33-year-old internet magnate, once again wearing a dark suit instead of his usual gray T-shirt, appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, a day after he took questions for nearly five hours in a U.S. Senate hearing.

He navigated through the first hearing on Tuesday without making any further promises to support new legislation or change how the social network does business, foiling attempts by senators to pin him down.

Investors were impressed with his initial performance. Shares in Facebook posted their biggest daily gain in nearly two years on Tuesday, closing up 4.5 percent. They were down slightly in early trading on Wednesday.

Facebook has been consumed by turmoil for nearly a month, since it came to light that millions of users’ personal information was wrongly harvested from the website by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign among its clients. The latest estimate of affected users is up to 87 million.

Patience with the social network had already worn thin among users, advertisers and investors after the company said last year that Russia used Facebook for years to try to sway U.S. politics, an allegation Moscow denies.

Lawmakers have sought assurances that Facebook can effectively police itself, and few came away from Tuesday’s hearing expressing confidence in the social network.

“I don’t want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God, I will,” Republican Senator John Kennedy told Zuckerberg on Tuesday. “A lot of that depends on you.”

Zuckerberg deflected requests to support specific legislation. Pressed repeatedly by Democratic Senator Ed Markey to endorse a proposed law that would require companies to get people’s permission before sharing personal information, Zuckerberg agreed to further talks.

“In principle, I think that makes sense, and the details matter, and I look forward to having our team work with you on fleshing that out,” Zuckerberg said.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington and David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Rigby)

CEO Zuckerberg says Facebook could have done more to prevent misuse

FILE PHOTO: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo

By Dustin Volz and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told Congress on Monday that the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members’ data being misused and offered a broad apology to lawmakers.

His conciliatory tone precedes two days of Congressional hearings where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the U.S. 2016 election.

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

Zuckerberg, surrounded by tight security and wearing a dark suit and a purple tie rather than his trademark hoodie, was meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of his scheduled appearance before two Congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Zuckerberg did not respond to questions as he entered and left a meeting with Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. He is expected to meet Senator John Thune, the Commerce Committee’s Republican chairman, later in the day, among others.

Top of the agenda in the forthcoming hearings will be Facebook’s admission that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

But lawmakers are also expected to press him on a range of issues, including the 2016 election.

“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm…” his testimony continued. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

Facebook, which has 2.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, said on Sunday it plans to begin on Monday telling users whose data may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica. The company’s data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

London-based Cambridge Analytica, which counts U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its past clients, has disputed Facebook’s estimate of the number of affected users.

Zuckerberg also said that Facebook’s major investments in security “will significantly impact our profitability going forward.” Facebook shares were up 2 percent in midday trading.

ONLINE INFORMATION WARFARE

Facebook has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, rising to more than 20,000 by the end of 2018, Zuckerberg’s testimony said. “Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” he said.

As with other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook has been resistant to new laws governing its business, but on Friday it backed proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads and introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which do not endorse any candidate but have been used to exploit divisive subjects such as gun laws or police shootings.

The steps are designed to deter online information warfare and election meddling that U.S. authorities have accused Russia of pursuing, Zuckerberg said on Friday. Moscow has denied the allegations.

Zuckerberg’s testimony said the company was “too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better.”

He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but said he was “committed to getting it right.”

A Facebook official confirmed that the company had hired a team from the law firm WilmerHale and outside consultants to help prepare Zuckerberg for his testimony and how lawmakers may question him.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Dustin Volz; Editing by Bill Rigby)

15 Million T-Mobile Customers’ Data Stolen by Hackers

The credit bureau Experian experienced a data breach, revealing user data from approximately 15 million T-Mobile customers.

The data gathered by the hackers included names, addresses, birth dates, and Social Security numbers along with other forms of identification like driver’s’ license numbers. According to T-Mobile, the hackers were not able to get payment information or bank account information.

People affected by the hack may not be current T-Mobile customers. The companies announced that customers who applied for T-Mobile postpaid services or device financing between September 1, 2013 and September 16, 2015 were the ones who could be victims of the hack.

Experian stated in a press release that no evidence has been presented so far that the data has been used illegally or inappropriately. Experian is a widely used credit-information provider that has experienced several security concerns; the T-Mobile hack is just the latest incident. The last cyberattack on Experian was in 2012 when 200 million Americans had their Social Security numbers exposed.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere had strong feelings regarding the breach and said that his company would be looking for a new and more secure service provider.

“Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian,” but the carrier’s top concern now is helping the people affected, Legere wrote in an open letter on T-Mobile’s site.

Experian North America stated in a notice that it was a business unit that had been compromised, and its consumer credit bureau wasn’t affected. Experian has notified international and U.S. law enforcement.

T-Mobile is now offering free credit monitoring identity resolution services from ProtectMyID for the next two years for their customers that think they may have been affected by the breach. ProtectMyID is a division of Experian.

The breach at Experian is the latest in a string of massive hacks that have claimed tens of millions of customer records. The U.S. Office of Personnel experienced a major hack earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase had a breach of data in 2014, and large retailer, Target, had a major cyberattack on their cash register systems in 2013.