CEO of Facebook mark Zuckerberg told the deputies that the situation his company is “inevitable,” but still came to Capitol Hill ready to defend the proposal, he thought that went too far.
He rarely had. After about 10 hours of hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the markets rallied and human rights activists were disappointed by the prospect that Facebook appeared to emerge unscathed, left adrift to manage as he collects a huge amount of personal data and handles the privacy of users.
“It’s still a very hard fight for reform of privacy,” said Alvaro Bedoya, who directs the Georgetown University center on privacy and technology. “Yes, we now have the wind at our backs, but if people stay around the country, it can very quickly turn into the giveaway for the technical.”
Some lawmakers touted their various proposals aimed at protecting privacy, including bills introduced this week, in response to the scandal privacy with the participation of about 87 million Facebook users whose data has been swept data firm Cambridge intelligence.
More regulation ” is a very real possibility,” said the Republican representative from Oregon, Greg Walden, Chairman of the energy and house Commerce Committee, which held a hearing on Wednesday. But when it was over, Walden acknowledged, there is little consensus.
“There is such a unit, I think, and I think still people want to know more about what companies themselves can do,” said Walden.
Zuckerberg often professed their willingness to work with legislators in the legislative idea, or said back to him. He made several commitments, and promised that Facebook can protect users on their own with the best algorithms and achievements in the field of artificial intelligence.
The top Democrat on the panel, new Jersey Frank Pallone Rep., said after the hearing that he thinks Democrats “made it absolutely clear that we need a comprehensive law On privacy and data”, but did not say exactly what it will look like.
“The biggest concern I have now, and I think it can be solved legislatively, is that he didn’t want to make any changes to privacy settings by default,” said Pallone. “So the problem always is that you go, and if you affirmatively decided to protect themselves, they just take everything. I think that should be changed”.
Pallone, however, said that “pessimistic is what happens with a Republican majority.”
It’s not that Zuckerberg’s not peppered with some tough questions from both sides about their company and its business model. Asked Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday if Facebook was a monopoly, Zuckerberg replied, “of course, I don’t feel that with me.” Just a few minutes earlier, though, he struggled to name direct competitors.
In accordance with the antitrust laws of the United States, corporations are considered to be illegal monopoly can be broken into smaller parts with Federal regulators. Nobody asked Zuckerberg about that, although he notes that photographer the associated Press remarked on his Desk showed that he was prepared to question.
“Break FB?” asked one point a bullet in the written thesis. “We are tech key asset for America; to break strengthens Chinese companies.”
As it became clear this week that Congress has no unifying idea on how to tame the power of Facebook in a useful way, not a lot of privacy and consumer advocates are calling for increased regulation.
“I think that an interesting approach to regulation is not a breakup or have more privacy, and the separation on Facebook,” said Chris Hoofnagle, a Professor at the Berkeley center for law and technology.
He said that this can happen in the same way, the Federal communications Commission of the USA has forced AOL to share its service instant messaging, making it compatible with the systems used by rival Internet companies. Agreement on the division was one of the conditions of the deal that allowed AOL to merge with “time Warner”.
“Imagine if the antitrust authorities forced Facebook to open your garden and allow third party apps to interact without any invasive properties, applications Facebook,” said Hoofnagle.
What happens next is unclear, but Bedoya said he’s hopeful Congress can focus on a package of specific reforms, such as protection to forbid face tracking for location or recognition of individuals without their consent. Such measures should also strengthen the Federal trade relationship that has an agreement in 2011 against Facebook, which remains one of the most powerful defenses of the US government against future breaches of confidentiality.
Walden, noting that Facebook is already regulated by the FTC, said that the company will face high fines if he violates these rules on a second offense.
“What I worry about is that someone is trying to pass a super-wide privacy law that lobbyists can eat alive,” said Bedoya. “Industry professional of consumer protection on Capitol hill and in statehouses, hand for hand”.
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For full coverage of the privacy scandal Facebook, visit https://apnews.com/tag/FacebookPrivacyScandal
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