Facebook’s Zuckerberg faces off with EU lawmakers over privacy

[Matrix]

European Union lawmakers grilled Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, peppering him with complex questions on topics ranging from election interference to antitrust.

But, Zuckerberg didn’t answer some of the tougher questions or stray beyond the public relations blueprint established during his trip to Washington D.C. Despite the re-hashed responses, Zuckerberg made an effort to reassure European leaders that the company was, in fact, acting in the best interest of its members.

“Keeping people safe will always be more important than maximizing our profits.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Beginning last year, Zuckerberg has repeatedly told investors that the costs of operating the social network with more than 2 billion users will continue to rise, as the company invests in technology and people to reign in some of the issues brought to the public’s attention by the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.

The testimony with European officials in Brussels comes days ahead of the May 25 deadline to implement the General Data Protection Regulation that will increase protections on data and privacy for people in the EU and European Economic Area.

“I think he had to stress safety, security post-Cambridge, the EU was even a more critical party because of GDPR and because of the hyper focus on data privacy and security” said Daniel Ives, head of technology research at GBH Insights. “[Zuckerberg] had to strike a slightly different tone around safety, security and privacy versus the Beltway, which was much more in broad brush strokes.”

Since the Cambridge Analytica news broke, Facebook executives have embarked on something of an apology tour, speaking with reporters, announcing a swath of responses and changes to the business, as well as appearing before American lawmakers. But Zuckerberg has previously said the company has not yet seen a material impact on its business.

 

 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Face-Off With European Parliament: The Highlights

 

Among other questions, European lawmakers pressed Zuckerberg on the company’s use of so-called “shadow profiles” — data gathered on people who don’t have Facebook accounts but visit other sites that use Facebook’s technology. Zuckerberg said Facebook will continue to use shadow profiles because they are important to “protect people in the community.”

Zuckerberg dismissed questions about whether Facebook was a monopoly, claiming that the average person uses eight tools for communication, including apps such as the Facebook-owned Messenger. He said Facebook accounts for 6% of global advertising.

 

Zuckerberg did not answer all of the questions posed during the hearing, but promised to answer the remainder in writing.

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Facebook stock FB, -0.96%   was down 0.4% to $183.85 regular trading. Since the scandal broke in March, Facebook stock dropped by a double-digit percentage, but has since recovered, and is up 4.2% this year, outpacing the benchmark S&P 500 SPX, -0.31%  1.9% gain in 2018.

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[Karlston]

So Facebook acts in the best interests of its members?

 

So why did they pull this privacy-avoidance stunt...  Facebook will move the data of 1.5 billion users to avoid EU’s new privacy law (TechRadar)

 

Facebook clearly thinks less privacy is better for its members.

[Al_Fh]

Less privacy means more information to sell which in turn translates to more money from advertisement plus the free roam ticket on messing with  its members subconscious!