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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday regarding Facebook’s data privacy practices. His widely-anticipated testimony comes after Facebook revealed it improperly shared up to 87 million users’ personal data with Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm hired by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
The following AEI experts are available to comment on Zuckerberg’s testimony, as well as the outlook for data privacy and tech regulation more broadly.
Visiting Scholar Mark Jamison in “Political use of Facebook data is old hat but still creates problems”: “While it may be good theater to watch the struggles of a company that we all know…we should not miss two key takeaways. First, data companies scraping social media for political purposes is normal. Second, social media companies need to be overly transparent about how they use their customers’ data.”
DeWitt Wallace Fellow James Pethokoukis in “What Mark Zuckerberg should say to Congress”: “Zuckerberg needs to explain in basic and unimpeachable terms how Facebook works, how it makes money, and how it doesn’t make money. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this, a confusion which has exacerbated the Cambridge Analytica crisis. … Moreover, Zuckerberg has to outline further changes at the platform, including giving consumers an easier way to control their data.”
Visiting Scholar Babette Boliek: “We could say that all these privacy risks are just the price of participation in the digital era, but why then is there a national debate on whether the default rule on privacy should not be the current opt-out model, but rather an opt-in system? …if opt-outs are cumbersome, arguably because companies lose money if you exercise them, the balance is broken…”
Visiting Fellow Daniel Lyons: “While consumer privacy is important, one must consider the effect that greater privacy protections would have on the broader internet experience. Simply put, consumer information is the lifeblood of the internet. … It is the monetization of customer data that allows Google, Facebook, and countless other companies to offer the “free”services that we all take for granted as the modern internet experience.”
To arrange an interview, please contact AEI Media Services at mediaservices@aei.org or 202.862.5829.
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