Blumenthal, Dem. Senators warn Facebook

Richard Blumenthal. Photo by Keelin Daly/Stamford Advocate

Just because Richard Blumenthal is now a U.S. Senator does not mean he will stop going after corporations he thinks are doing the public wrong.

Blumenthal and three other Democratic senators (Al Franken-Minn., Charles E. Schumer-N.Y. and Sheldon Whitehouse-R.I.), sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, warning him to stop plans to “reveal sensitive personal information about its 147 million American users,  making them easy targets for fraud, theft and abuse,” the foursome said in a release.

A new Facebook plan would allow application developers to request and obtain information including addresses and phone numbers.

“Anyone with ten minutes, $25 and a Facebook user’s phone and address and no other information can obtain a breathtaking amount of information about that Facebook user—and that Facebook user’s family, friends, neighbors, and landlord,” the senators wrote.  “Combined with a targeted Google search, these two pieces of information can allow someone to obtain almost all of the information necessary to complete a loan or credit card application.  It is hard to contemplate all of the different ways in which this information could be abused.”

The senators said they would like Zuckerberg to reconsider Facebook’s policy or at least take some steps to block those under 18 from revealing the information. They would also like Facebook to inform other users about the risks of the new policy and allow users to opt out.

The full text of the letter is here: http://franken.senate.gov/files/letter/110309_Mark_Zuckerberg_Privacy.pdf.

Last year, Sens. Franken, Schumer, Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) wrote a letter urging Facebook to fix its privacy policy to block users personal information from being accessed by third parties without the user’s consent.

The full text of that letter can be found here: http://franken.senate.gov/files/letter/100427_Facebook_Letter.pdf.

Tom Cleary