Senators Write to Facebook Founder

Forget Wall Street—four Democratic senators have teamed to change a different sort of policy. Politico reports that Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Begich (D-AK) and Al Franken (D-MN) wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg "to express our concern regarding recent changes to the Facebook privacy policy and the use of personal data on third-party websites." The letter singles out three areas: the way Facebook now compels users to make certain data publicly available; the policy change that allows third-party advertisers to store profile data indefinitely; and the instant personalization of external websites, which could allow some third-party partners to access a user's friend list. The senators asked Facebook to provide opt-in instead of opt-out options, adding, "we look forward to the FTC examining this issue."