Posts

Showing posts from July, 2019

Can Facebook be trusted?

Th irty minutes into yesterday's Congressional hearing Facebook executive/digital wallet project head David Marcus was asked by even if not now, is there eventual intent to monetize the new data generated by consumer usage of the proposed Libra currency?    Marcus said no, that's not the intention at all, the indirect benefit to be derived by FB will come from the generation of transactions between and among the "90 million small businesses", in order to sell more ads. (This facilitating the welfare of the 90 million businesses, was repeated, contradicting the business premise of Facebook itself, founded on the individual consumer market) When asked about the Libra Association, the response  was that no one necessarily has to trust Facebook itself, that  it represented only one vote of the 100 members of the Association, and would not seek to control it...which of course begs the question, why was it that it was Facebook on hand to answer questions about it. ...

Testifying to Congress about Libra

FaceBook faces off Congress today in testimony intended to address privacy fears engendered by the introduction of the Libra cryptocurrency.   FB's presence in the Capitol City comes on the heels of a $5 billion fine levied against the company by the FTC for its handling of user data, in violation of a previous privacy settlement reached. H owever  Facebook’s ability to share data with third parties was not a  condition of the new settlement.   Privacy advocates expect to be be watching closely to see if third party usage of Libra currency activity will be on today's agenda.