Facebook Deputy Chief Global
Privacy Officer Stephen Deadman told ANSA Wednesday that "we are
strongly committed to protect people's information and we
welcome the opportunity to respond to the questions posed by the
(media watchdog AGCOM)" in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica
scandal. AGCOM on Tuesday asked Facebook for information on the
use of data analytics for the purpose of political communication
by third parties, the watchdog said in a statement.
The move came amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook is under investigation in the US and the UK on the
suspected vote-influencing profile harvesting scandal over
Brexit and the US presidential elections.
Mark Zuckerberg has been summoned by a British parliamentary
panel and the European Parliament.
Earlier Tuesday European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)
Giovanni Buttarelli responded to a question on whether Italian
Facebook user data may have been harvested for possible election
manipulation, in the same way that US Facebook user data was
utilised in efforts to manipulate the US elections, as recently
reported in the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
"It's not my role to investigate how this data" on Italian
Facebook users "is used in practice", Buttarelli said, adding
that the "way the (Facebook) system works is global; there isn't
a national approach".
Buttarelli added that next year's European Parliament
elections "are an important test for us all".
He said "we're not her to alarm you but the problem is real
and urgent".
Buttarelli said the EP was planning to set up a committee on
data harvesting and fake news, "to which we offer our support.
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