Zuckerberg's Wasted Day

Born long before the digital era took hold, the mostly gray-haired members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees came to grill Mark Zuckerberg, the errant 33-year-old CEO who came before them in his uncustomary suit and periwinkle tie on Tuesday afternoon.And for very good reason, since Facebook — where billions of people all over the world get their news, whether true or false — has been in­cred­ibly irresponsible and cavalier with users’ personal information. That was made clear last month in the blockbuster news that Facebook had allowed the phone numbers, emails and in some cases text messages of 87 million users to get into the hands of a data firm, Cambridge Analytica, bent on electing Donald Trump as president.WP

Senator CANTWELL: Do you believe European regulations should be applied here in the U.S.?ZUCKERBERG: Senator, I think everyone in the world deserves good privacy protection. And, regardless of whether we implement the exact same regulation, I would guess that it would be somewhat different, because we have somewhat different sensibilities in the U.S. as to other countries.We're committed to rolling out the controls and the affirmative consent and the special controls around sensitive types of technology, like face recognition, that are required in GDPR. We're doing that around the world.So I think it's certainly worth discussing whether we should have something similar in the U.S. But what I would like to say today is that we're going to go forward and implement that, regardless of what the regulatory outcome is.