Sen Rockefeller Voices Concerns With Facebook, MySpace Privacy Protections

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller sent letters to Facebook and MySpace requesting more information about privacy breaches.

Users of Facebook and MySpace have had their personal information transferred to third-party companies without their knowledge. "These reports raise serious questions about social networking sites' commitment to enforcing their own privacy policies on behalf of consumers," Chairman Rockefeller (D-WV) said. "I intend to find out whether today's social networking sites are adequately protecting their users' personal information."

In his letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman Rockefeller expressed concern that if the Journal repot is accurate, "the privacy of tens of millions of Facebook users could be seriously compromised in violation of the company's stated policy." Among the information Chairman Rockefeller is seeking includes the number of personnel Facebook dedicates to monitoring and enforcing its third-party application providers' compliance with Facebook's privacy policy and whether the social networking site imposes penalties on application operators and websites that violate Facebook's privacy policy.

"We look forward to addressing any confusion that has resulted from the Wall Street Journal article and we're happy to work with Sen. Rockefeller to answer any questions he may have," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said. "The underlying issue raised in the article isn't at all specific to Facebook and has existed across the Internet for years. The issue is caused by an inherent weakness in how web browsers work, particularly the amount of information about a user that browsers shared with visited websites."