Google, Twitter next in line for Capitol Hill privacy probes

Published on April 16, 2018

After Facebook, technology giants Google and Twitter might be next in line for a Capitol Hill grilling on privacy. As can be recalled, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg ended up spending majority of this week’s chunk on being questioned about his company. The social media giant was found snooping and sharing personal information of its users. According to numerous reports, the CEO ended up illegally sharing over 87 million of its users account details with London-based data firm, Cambridge Analytica.

Google, Twitter

“Mark Zuckerberg spent the better part of this week being questioned on the company’s data collection and management practices, as well as their relation to the industry as a whole,” a report by Android Headlines read. Now, new reports suggest that after Facebook, Google and Twitter might undergo the same session. In an official statement given to CNET, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who is currently based out of Virginia, confirmed the news. He said that the existing state of data protection practices in the sector is a huge issue that both, Twitter and Google need to address. “Google and YouTube as a single entity need to address,” he said.

Since Facebook has already gone on to meet with the lawmakers back in November and discussed what is required, they won’t have to undergo the same process again. As can be recalled, the social media giant ended up meeting the lawmakers wherein they carried out discussions about their efforts to combat online misinformation campaigns. One such campaign was the type that involved several foreign actors from Russia that ran during the 2016 Presidential election in the United States of America. “To date, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted thirteen Russian nationals and three entities from the same country for illegally interfering with the U.S. democratic process,” notes the report by Android Headlines.

Notably, the Cambridge Analytica controversy ended up prompting Facebook’s stocks to plummet and be placing within the company’s massive regulatory scrutiny. It also ended up being partially related to the case itself. Several American political consulting firms went on to being accused of purchasing improperly harvested data of some 87 million Facebook users to support the Trump campaign during the last election. The firm itself was known to be working for the Donald Trump campaign. Furthermore, they repeatedly dismissed making use of the data that was obtained back in 2014. The information was accessed through the means of a personality quiz that reportedly asked users to log into it with their Facebook accounts. The social media giant had already allegedly agreed to a forensic audit of its servers that are specifically meant to prove it. The information was apparently deleting after news of the controversially mined data in 2015 came up.

According to a report by Android Headlines, Google’s business model is relatively similar to Facebook’s, and it ends up offering a large variety of free service to consumers. The search giant also collects their data and uses it for purposes of target advertisements toward them. Numerous industry watchers are already speculating about the Mountain View-based technology giant being targeting by the new privacy probes being ordering by Capitol Hill. Innumerable regulations that end up stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal are likely to apply to the Silicon Valley as a whole and not just Facebook itself. As can be recalled, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg ended up spending majority of this week’s chunk on being questioned about his company. The social media giant was found snooping and sharing personal information of its users. According to numerous reports, the CEO ended up illegally sharing over 87 million of its users account details with London-based data firm, Cambridge Analytica.

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