Facebook Inc. missed a deadline to respond to questions from two top U.S. senators on its sharing of user data with device makers, the latest delay by the social network in addressing lawmakers’ queries about its privacy lapses.
Sens. John Thune and Bill Nelson, respectively the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, asked the company in a June 5 letter to answer five questions on data sharing with telecom companies by the end of the business on Monday. The company told the committee it would not meet the requested response date, panel spokesman Frederick Hill said Tuesday.
Facebook has said it needed to share the information to power versions of its service that were common before it deployed formal phone apps, and that the data was largely stored on the phones that accessed it. Still, the agreements prompted criticism from Congress in light of the inclusion of Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co. in the partnerships, as well as earlier revelations that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
In the letter to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, Thune and Nelson asked whether he should amend his April testimony to the panel on Cambridge Analytica, in which he focused on user data but didn’t mention the partnerships with device makers. The lawmakers also asked how shared data is stored and whether users or the Federal Trade Commission, which has a 2011 privacy settlement with the company, were ever aware of the agreements.
On June 6, Thune said Facebook was late in responding to many questions it received during and after Zuckerberg’s April testimony.
