Just days after Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of the Senate, our favourite CEO seems to have gotten himself involved in yet another controversy. The two days of hearing confirmed that Zuckerberg would make sure the Cambridge Analytica data leaks issue would be resolved as soon as possible. While this may have temporarily satiated the growing unrest faced by Facebook, a seemingly off handed made by Zuckerberg sparked off yet another serious issue.
Zuckerberg while responding to U.S. Representative Ben Luján sparked another controversy, as he revealed, “For security reasons, Facebook also collects data of people who have not signed up for Facebook.” While the concerns over the security of WhatsApp’s payment based data appear to be settling down, Facebook’s scenario is different. The matter seems too deep to settle down.
Clarifying the issue, Zuckerberg made a statement saying, “When you make a payment, WhatsApp creates the necessary connection between the sender and recipient of the payment, using Facebook infrastructure. We pass the transaction information to the bank partner, which is called a PSP (payment service provider) and to the NPCI (National Payment Corporation of India,) so they can facilitate the movement of funds between the sender’s and receiver’s bank accounts.”
Furthermore, WhatsApp said it does not divulge all the data revealed by the users and said in a statement, “In some cases, we may share limited data to help provide customer support to you or keep payments safe and secure.” While this may seem like a tender coating on a serious issue, the controversies just seem to keep increasing for Zuckerberg. During the two days Congressional grilling session, it became very apparent that Facebook is primarily owned by the founder.
Thanks to the firm’s stock structure, its public investors, even those with $1 billion (£ 70 million) holdings, do not have much say on the company’s future. So far, the investors haven’t raised their voice over the structuring of the shares. However, with the Cambridge Analytica issue blowing up in his face like it has, the time is now ripe to on the tyranny that has become Zuckerberg. By the looks of things, however, it seems the eccentric founder isn’t ready to give up control just yet. Now, only time will tell about the online social media’s platforms future.
