Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. U.S. Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas)and Edward Markey (D-Mass) Co-Chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus today released the letter they received from Facebook in response to their February 2 2011 letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the companys plan to enable users to make their addresses & mobile phone numbers available to 3rd-party websites and applications on the Facebook platform.
Last month Facebook announced it would temporarily suspend and then soon re-launch a feature to enable its users to share more of their personal information potentially including their addresses and mobile phone numbers with websites and third-party applications.
The letter sent by Reps. Barton and Markey sought detailed information about Facebooks plan for this new functionality including whether the company considered the potential impact on children and teenagers who may opt to share their personal addresses and mobile phone numbers with third parties without fully understanding the ramifications.
Hundreds of millions of people use Facebook and it is important that the company works as hard at protecting their users privacy as they do providing a popular social interaction platform" said Rep. Barton. People enjoy the games and applications that Facebook offers but taking advantage of them shouldnt jeopardize a users privacy. Facebook has a responsibility to their customers not just the third party vendors it associates with. I hope they continue to improve protection of users private information."
Mobile phone numbers and personal addresses particularly those that can identify teenagers using Facebook require special protection" said Rep. Markey. We must ensure that this sensitive information is safeguarded with clear distinct permissions so that users know precisely whats in store when they opt to share this data with third parties. Moreover simple easily
accessible tools are needed so users can rescind these permissions if they subsequently find they no longer want their information in the hands of third parties.
While permission slips give parents piece of mind Internet permission slip-ups can expose children and teens to dangers online. Thats why its critical that Facebook get this right.
Im pleased that Facebooks response indicated that its looking to enhance its process for highlighting for users when they are being asked for permission to share their contact information. I look forward to monitoring the companys work in this area. Im also encouraged that Facebook is deciding whether to allow applications on the site to request contact information from minors.
I dont believe that applications on Facebook should get this information from teens and I encourage Facebook to wall off access to teens contact information if they enable this new feature. Facebook has indicated that the feature is still a work in progress and I will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure that sensitive personal user data especially those belonging to children and teenagers are protected."
This latest correspondence comes after Reps.
Barton and Markey previously wrote to Facebook about a media report that companies operating on the Facebook were accessing users Facebook IDs without their knowledge or consent.
Reps. Barton and Markey received a
response from Facebook in fall 2010 in response to their inquiry.
A full copy of
the Facebook response letter can be found HERE.
