Looks Like the 112th Congress May Examine Facebook's "Breach of Privacy" for Consumer-Tracking Technologies

Let's file this under "When the Wall Street Journal writes, Congress listens". See LLB's Oct. 18, 2010 post, Despite Applying Facebook's Strictest Privacy Settings, Popular Facebook Apps Transmit Personal Information to Advertising and Data Collection Firms. It appears likely that Facebook will be under greater scrutiny by the 112th Congress for being the vehicle that alledgely provided a means where 500 million users' personal information could be scraped by independent consumer-technology apps. Facebook told lawmakers that it has take steps to safeguard user privacy but rejected the argument that sharing Facebook user IDs with third-party applications constitues a breach of privacy in an October 29, 2010 letter  to Rep. Edward J. Markey, Co-Chairman, House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus and Joe Barton, Ranking Member, House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Good luck with that.

BNA reports "Republicans and Democrats in both chambers have said the issue will not be abandoned in the next congress. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus expect 'increased bipartisan attention' to privacy, data security, cybersecurity, and electronic surveillance issues in the 112th Congress." [JH]