Boston (March 19, 2018) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today called on committee leadership to immediately hold a hearing on the reported use of more than 50 million Facebook users’ private information by the firm Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. According to reporting from The New York Times and The Observer of London, as early as 2014, Cambridge Analytica began working to acquire the private information of more than 50 million Facebook users for the purpose of building profiles of American voters and selling that information to political campaigns. The reporting also revealed that only a fraction of the users in question had given consent for their information to be shared with a third party. Facebook has since suspended Cambridge Analytica for “violating our platform policies.”

“In light of these allegations, and the ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent decree that requires Facebook to obtain explicit permission before sharing data about its users, the Committee should move quickly to hold a hearing on this incident, which has allegedly violated the privacy of tens of millions of Americans,” writes Senator Markey in his letter.

A copy of Senator Markey’s letter can be found HERE.

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