Sen. Markey Suggests Zuckerberg Not Forthcoming on Data Distribution

Internal Facebook documents released by a British lawmaker Wednesday suggest CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn't forthcoming with Congress when claiming the platform doesn’t sell user data, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. British MP Damian Collins, chairman of Parliament's Digital Committee, released some 250 pages of seized internal documents showing Facebook discussing requirements for companies to buy a certain amount of digital ads to continue accessing user data. “Any evidence of a pay-for-data model would fly in the face of the statements Facebook has made to Congress and the public,” Markey said. The trove also included emails from Facebook Product Management Director Yul Kwon supporting questionable methods for accessing Android call history data without user consent. In February 2015, he discussed a change that “would allow [Facebook] to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all.” Facebook’s 2011 FTC consent decree requires affirmative user consent for the collection of certain user data. “This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective but it appears that the growth team will charge ahead and do it,” Product Manager Michael LeBeau wrote. The Android feature in question allows users “to opt in to giving Facebook access to their call and text messaging logs,” Facebook blogged Wednesday, addressing controversial issues cited in the documents. The data is used to “make better suggestions for people to call in Messenger and rank contact lists in Messenger and Facebook Lite.”