Images of Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress flooded the news and social media this week, as various representatives intensely questioned him about a variety of topics.The Facebook CEO was clearly taken off guard by the line of questioning, rendering him incapable of answering many of the questions fired his way.Read on for this week’s data privacy recap.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized in public hearing Zuckerberg went before the House Financial Services Committee this past week, with the main subject of the hearing being Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project.
For those unfamiliar with the project, it’s the company’s attempt at making a global digital currency that can be used both on and off the platform.Zuckerberg hopes that the easily-exchangeable coin would be used to purchase goods and services of all kinds.Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters immediately criticized Zuckerberg on a much larger scale.She cited widespread concerns over user privacy on the platform, allowing the promotion of false political advertisements, permitting the existence of hate groups on the platform, and even addressed concerns of the company attempting to monopolize.
“I have come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial for all if Facebook concentrates on addressing its many existing deficiencies and failures before proceeding any further on the Libra project,” said Waters.Zuckerberg’s defense of the project is devious, as he claims that it’s rooted in a desire to help the poor citizens of the world who don’t have access to traditional banking services.This defense, genuine or not, feels like a major deflection.As is his second point of defense: fear of China.As he sees it, China will launch their own version of the coin if Facebook doesn’t.The hearings got particularly heated when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got her chance to grill Zuckerberg.When asked if he was concerned about misleading political ads, he fumbled: “I think lying is bad, and I think if you were to run an ad that had a lie, that would be bad.” Senate bill aims to make user data ‘portable’ In other big news, three senators made a data-minded proposal this week that could be beneficial for American citizens.Sens.
Mark R.Warner (D-Virginia), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) are spearheading the bill, which they’ve dubbed the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act (ACCESS Act).The bill would essentially force social media companies to allow users the ability to make user data portable.That means they’d be able to take their personal preference and demographic to other services easily.
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Warner compared the bill to previous legislation which allowed people to transfer their telephone numbers between providers.“By making it easier for social media users to easily move their data or to continue to communicate with their friends after switching platforms, startups will be able to compete on equal terms with the biggest social media companies.” Via PixaBay.Chrome and Firefox to alert users about data breaches In an effort to secure their respective browsers, Google released a new version of Chrome and Mozilla has launched Firefox 70 this month.
Mozilla’s new features are fairly wide-ranging in scope, and include gems like social media tracking prevention, a reporting mechanism for all things privacy, and even a breach notification service.Based on the user names and login info that users employ for various sites, Firefox will notify you of data breaches as they happen.And the aforementioned social tracking feature will block all trackers that are associated with Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.As for Google, Chrome officially merged the Password Checkup extension into the browser itself, meaning that it will notify you if your passwords are leaked in a breach as well.
It’s not a default setting, but it can be easily switched in Chrome settings.These are some major steps forward, and they ought to be celebrated as such.
Via Pixabay.Georgia’s Supreme Court issues decision on vehicle data privacy An official decision has finally been made in Georgia regarding the privacy of vehicle data.
The case in question deals with a 2014 incident in Victor Mobley’s Dodge Charger struck a Chevrolet Corvette as they pulled out of their driveway, killing both of the both of the people in the second car.Initially the police deduced that the Corvette driver must have pulled out without sufficient warning, and that Mobley was not at fault.It wasn’t until they plugged a device into the Charger that determined the car was going 100 mph at the time of the accident.This measurement was taken without consent, however, which caused difficulties in the case.
While the Court of Appeals initally decided that Mobley had no entitlement to vehicle privacy, the Georgia State Supreme Court has now overturned that decision.The decision is a fairly landmark one, showing that in terms of privacy, a person’s car is now treated just as sacred as their home.https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/georgia-supreme-court-vehicle-data-privacy/ What do you think was the most important data story of the week? Leave us a comment below.Stay in-the-know with the top data news brought to you by BIGtoken at the start of every week.The blockchain platform for consumers to own, verify, and sell their data.Follow .
