Congress Investigates Facebook Privacy

Will this be the plot of The Social Network 2? Two congressmen have sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting more information about how the social network handles user information, after it was caught in a privacy breach. U.S. Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) said in the letter they were concerned about the way advertisers have found personally identifiable information, after a loophole was found in the way applications transmitted identification numbers for users. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook’s ID numbers can later be used to look up the user’s real name, and sometimes other information the user has made public—all to better target ads. The letter also asked Zuckerberg how many users would be affected by the glitch, and when Facebook became aware of it. The letter requested Zuckerberg respond by Oct. 27.