German Justice Minister Katarina Barley has asked to speak to Facebook executives to find out whether the social media site’s 30 million users in the country were affected by what she described as “scandal” involving personal data.
Barley said it must be possible for users of social media sites to specify whether they are happy for their data to be used in certain ways, rather than just giving them the option to tick “yes” or not be able to use the service.
“We know that companies respect the rules when sanctions are particularly painful. And the data protection basic regulation calls for fines of up to 4 percent of a company’s yearly global turnover,” she said on Thursday.
Barley also said data protection had to be regulated at a European level, rather than by national governments.
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised on Wednesday for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users and promised tougher steps to restrict developers’ access to such information.
The world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the U. S. about a whistleblower’s allegations that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.
“This was a major breach of trust. I’m really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with CNN, breaking a public silence since the scandal erupted at the weekend.
He said the social network planned to conduct an investigation of thousands of apps that have used Facebook’s platform, restrict developer access to data, and give members a tool that lets them to disable access to their Facebook data more easily.
His plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.
Zuckerberg said he was open to additional government regulation and happy to testify before the U.S. Congress if he was the right person.
“I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” he told CNN. “I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? … People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook.”
Zuckerberg said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the U.S. midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.
Facebook shares pared gains on Wednesday after Zuckerberg’s post, closing up 0.7 per cent.
The company has lost more than 45 billion dollars of its stock market value over the past three days on investor fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation.
Zuckerberg told the New York Times in an interview published on Wednesday he had not seen a “meaningful number of people” deleting their accounts over the scandal.
Facebook representatives, including Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman, met U.S. congressional staff for nearly two hours on Wednesday and planned to continue meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Facebook was unable to answer many questions, two aides who attended the briefing said.