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from the ignorance-is-bliss...until-it-isn't dept.
Sen. Mark Warner, shown here in 2018, said Wednesday that he's drafting legislation to require major tech platforms to get informed consent from users whose data is collected in market research.
After a year of asking Facebook to explain its approach to privacy, at least two US senators still have questions.
Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, each took the company to task Wednesday in light of reports that it paid teens as young as 13 to download an app that could track their every action on their phones.
In separate press releases, the senators pointed to growing frustration with the social media giant for not being clear about its data collection practices. For his part, Warner said he is drafting a bill to require major companies to get informed consent from users whose data becomes the target of market research.
"I have concerns that users were not appropriately informed about the extent of Facebook's data-gathering and the commercial purposes of this data collection," Warner wrote in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But a spokesperson told CNET earlier Wednesday that Facebook didn't share the data it collected and users knew what they were signing up for. Less than 5 percent of the users were teens and all signed parental consent forms, the spokesperson said.
Warner also asked Facebook for a fuller accounting of how it came to approve the apps, which had deep access to track activity on mobile phones, including apps that Facebook was competing with.
Markey took issue with the ethics of targeting teens with an offer they might not have the maturity to access.
"It is inherently manipulative to offer teens money in exchange for their personal information when younger users don't have a clear understanding how much data they're handing over and how sensitive it is," he said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @10:00PM (7 children)
Start with the lowest level employees involved and work up the chain till you get to Zucky. Charge them all and give deals to any non-management personnel. Last step, lock up the zuck.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 31 2019, @10:19PM (6 children)
You don't even need to do that. If I were trump, I would kneecap the H1-B and other similar programs immediately. It's not like the tech industry, the largest abuser of visas, is friendly to Trump or anything. Without so many H1-B stinkies, there will be a more broad demographic of real Americans working for tech companies, and with that will come the debate and political diversity that will stop shit like this in its tracks or at least provide a greater degree of whistleblowing so we don't find out about this shit until its too late.
But yeah, I suppose exposing Faceberg's leadership as Israeli intelligence assets would also be pretty cool.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday January 31 2019, @10:24PM (2 children)
Tells MBS that FB propagates the ideas of people opposing him.
Remind him that there are enough hardware stores to avoid BYOSaw.
Wait.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @10:48PM
Mr. Bone Saw
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @11:12PM
Sheesh! You people still don't know if that shit ever happened!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @11:22PM (1 child)
Right, because the Patriot Act and NSA mass surveillance was totally stopped by all those patriots with a conscience. Whistleblowers are shut down, and if they step up and blow the whistle anyway? Welp, Snowden sure enjoys his exile I'm sure!
It is hard to tell if you're an idiot or a shill.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 31 2019, @11:32PM
You may have a point there, but the stakes are much lower with places like Google. Look at all the leaks to Breitbart, for example. Now we all know that this [bing.net] is pretty much all Google interns, they are made to wear that stupid hat and parrot the party line.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 01 2019, @07:48PM
If I were trump, I would kneecap the H1-B and other similar programs immediately.
Meanwhile, back here in reality, Trump proposes to INCREASE H1-Bs [msn.com]
The proposal is designed to increase the number of H-1B beneficiaries by 16 percent, or 5,340 more workers.