Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, and CEO appeared before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday to answer for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
He admitted that he “made mistakes” in his notes for testimony as captured by an Associated Press photographer during a break in testimony and has said that he would not be resigning.
During the question barrage that ensued, he was asked about Facebook’s lengthy privacy policy and data handling and was told that his “user agreement sucks” by Sen. John Kennedy. Zuckerberg told the senators that users who were not happy could adjust their privacy settings- or, delete their accounts. He also said no policy was breached in letting Dr. Kogan mine the data, the app worked the way it should have, but it was when the doctor sold it to Cambridge Analytica. And on why he did not alert users on the data breach since 2015, “We considered it a closed case,” he said and that “In retrospect, that was clearly a mistake” as both the Firm and Dr, Kogan kept user information after saying they had deleted it.
He also said that Facebook does not sell user data, it deletes all user data after they close their account, it does not listen to calls or recordings from phone microphones, is not biased towards conservatives on the platform and it does not collect data from applications outside of Facebook. However, text messages of Android users are linked to Facebook’s message system making them accessible to Facebook but it can only be done with user consent.
He apologized repeatedly for the lax in user privacy handling and lawmakers have stated that they would regulate facebook if Zuckerberg does not fix the issue. It was even suggested that he re-write Facebook’s user agreement as the multiple lawsuits it faces claims it violated consumer protection laws, the Stored Communications Act, the Wiretap Act, and state privacy laws. To this, he told lawmakers that he would be open to new Facebook regulations and could include a 72-hour data breach disclosure policy which would allow users know if their data was compromised. He also said Facebook followed the law, its own rules and a previous settlement with the U.S. government. It’s lawyers have said Facebook followed the rules closely enough that it can’t be held liable.
Zuckerberg also announced during the hearing that Facebook was working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the Trump campaign tie to Russia during the presidential election. He did not give more details on it, however.
He is to follow with a testimony to a House panel on Wednesday.
