US Senator Demands Information From Facebook On User Audio File Handling - Letter

Facebook must answer questions over its handling of personal user audio files after reports that the social media company sent those recordings to third-party vendors, US Senator Gary Peters said in a letter to Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2019) Facebook must answer questions over its handling of personal user audio files after reports that the social media company sent those recordings to third-party vendors, US Senator Gary Peters said in a letter to Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday.

"I am writing to request information regarding recent reports that, counter to your prior testimony to Congress, Facebook Inc. (Facebook), has collected, transcribed, analyzed and used data from private audio conversations of Facebook users," Peters said in the letter. "This week, reports disclosed that Facebook has been paying third-parties to transcribe private audio conversations of Facebook users."

Peters said reports suggest that Facebook paid hundreds of contractors to transcribe user audio clips, and the company only ended this practice about a week ago.

The senator from Michigan is demanding answers from Zuckerberg by August 28 to better understand the extent and purpose of Facebook's use of the audio recordings.

On July 24, the US Federal Trade Commission said that Facebook has agreed to pay $5 billion to settle charges related to its violation of user privacy and has agreed to new restrictions on data management.

Facebook said in a statement at the time that the company is developing a new privacy program that would advance identification, assessment and mitigation of privacy risk.