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14 questions Mark Zuckerberg couldn't answer about Facebook last night

Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Mark Zuckerberg spent an uncomfortable five hours in front of US senators yesterday, trying to convince the world Facebook was dealing with the data scandal threatening to engulf it.

He has said his company is in an ‘arms race’ against Russia when he testified before Congress last night.

‘This is an arms race. They’re going to keep getting better,’ he said.

Up until now, Zuckerberg has stayed relatively quiet on data hacking matters, keeping his conversations with journalists focused on apologies and pledges to do better.

The first of two sessions included questions on privacy, how Facebook’s system works and how it will move forward from the data breach.

But there were more than a handful of questions Zuckerberg couldn’t seem to answer about his own company.

On Facebook’s policy for opting in or out for collecting texts and call data from minors:

Senator Roger Wicker: Unless you opt in via Facebook Messenger to sync up calls and texts, you don’t collect that call and text history?

MZ: It is opt-in. You — you have to affirmatively say that you want to sync that information before we get access to it.

Senator Roger Wicker: And is that true for — is this practice done at all with minors, or do you make an exception there for persons aged 13 to 17?

MZ: I do not know. We can follow up with that.

On Facebook’s data tracking policies after a user has logged off:

Senator Roger Wicker: There have been reports that Facebook can track a user’s internet browsing activity, even after that user has logged off of the Facebook platform. Can you confirm whether or not this is true?

MZ: Senator — I — I want to make sure I get this accurate, so it would probably be better to have my team follow up afterwards.

The Facebook founder and CEO spent nearly five hours addressing members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday. (AP)
The Facebook founder and CEO spent nearly five hours addressing members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday. (AP)

-On how long data is stored for after a user deletes their account:

Senator Dean Heller: How long do you keep a user’s data, once they — after — after they’ve left? If they — if they choose to delete their account, how long do you keep their data?

MZ: I don’t know the answer to that off the top of my head. I know we try to delete it as quickly as is reasonable. We have a lot of complex systems, and it work — takes a while to work through all that.

MZ: But I think we try to move as quickly as possible, and I can follow up or have my team follow up…

Senator Dean Heller: A couple questions for you, to clarify one of the comments made about deleting accounts from Facebook. In the user agreement it says when you delete I.P. content, if — if it is deleted in manner similar to — it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time. How long is that?

MZ: Senator, I don’t know, sitting here, what our current systems are on that. But the intent is to get all the content out of the system as quickly as possible.

Senator Dean Heller: And does that mean your user data as well? It talks about I.P. content, is that the same thing as your user data; it can sit in backup copies?

MZ: Senator, I think that that is probably right. I — I don’t — I’m not sitting here today having full knowledge of — of our current state of the systems around wiping all of the data out of backups. So I can follow up with you on that afterwards.

On the amount of apps that have been banned for breaching Facebook data-sharing terms:

Senator Chuck Grassley: Do you know of any instances where user data was improperly transferred to third party in breach of Facebook’s terms? If so, how many times has that happened, and was Facebook only made aware of that transfer by some third party?

MZ: As for past activity, I don’t have all the examples of apps that we’ve banned here, but if you would like, I can have my team follow up with you after this.

Mark Zuckerberg struggled to answer questions relating to privacy, legality and how his company will prevent it happening again in the future. (AP)
Mark Zuckerberg struggled to answer questions relating to privacy, legality and how his company will prevent it happening again in the future. (AP)

On the number of audits required to make sure data was properly deleted:

Senator Chuck Grassley: Have you ever required an audit to ensure the deletion of improperly transferred data? And, if so, how many times?

MZ: Yes we have. I don’t have the exact figure on how many times we have.

On the number of deleted Russian intelligence accounts:

Senator Dianne Feinstein: How many sanctioned news organizations in Russia/ accounts of this type have you taken down?

MZ: In the IRA specifically, the ones that we’ve pegged back to the IRA (Internet Research Agency), we can identify the 470 in the American elections in the 270 that we specifically went after in Russia last week.

There were many others that our systems catch, which are more difficult to attribute specifically to Russian intelligence, but the number would be in the tens of thousands of fake accounts that we remove. And I’m happy to have my team follow up with you on more information, if that would be helpful.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

On whether Facebook employees were directly involved with Cambridge Analytica’s data breaching:

Senator Maria Cantwell: During the 2016 campaign, Cambridge Analytica worked with the Trump campaign to refine tactics. And were Facebook employees involved in that?

MZ: Senator, I don’t know that our employees were involved with Cambridge Analytica. Although I know that we did help out the Trump campaign overall in sales support in the same way that we do with other companies.

On whether WhatsApp could end up in a similar situation:

Senator Maria Cantwell: And so my question to you is, do you see that those applications, that those companies – Palantir* and even WhatsApp – are going to fall into the same situation that you’ve just fallen into, over the last several years?

MZ: Senator, I’m not — I’m not sure, specifically. Overall, I — I do think that these issues around information access are challenging.

To the specifics about those apps, I’m not really that familiar with what Palantir does.

* Palantir is a firm that Facebook board member Peter Thiel co-founded and is now the chairman of. It works on large-scale data analysis and has been closely linked to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

On where the data hack affected the most people:

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Now on the subject of Cambridge Analytica, were these people, the 87 million people, users, concentrated in certain states? Are you able to figure out where they’re from?

MZ: I do not have that information with me, but we can follow up with your — your office.

On how Facebook’s data tracking links to other devices:

Senator Roy Blunt: Do you collect user data through cross-device tracking?

MZ: Senator, I believe we do link people’s accounts between devices in order to make sure that their Facebook and Instagram and their other experiences can be synched between their devices.

Senator Roy Blunt: And that would also include offline data, data that’s tracking that’s not necessarily linked to Facebook, but linked to one — some device they went through Facebook on, is that right?

MZ: Senator, I want to make sure we get this right. So I want to have my team follow up with you on that afterwards.

An aide to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg closes a binder of notes left on the table as Zuckerberg takes a short break from testifying. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
An aide to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg closes a binder of notes left on the table as Zuckerberg takes a short break from testifying. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

On whether Facebook tracks data when a person isn’t logged into the platform:

Senator Roy Blunt: Do you track devices that an individual who uses Facebook has that is connected to the device that they use for their Facebook connection, but not necessarily connected to Facebook?

MZ: I’m not — I’m not sure of the answer to that question.

Senator Roy Blunt: Really?

MZ: Yes. There — there may be some data that is necessary to provide the service that we do. But I don’t — I don’t have that on — sitting here today. So that’s something that I would want to follow up on.

On whether Aleksandr Kogan’s account has been closed down:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: Obviously Facebook has been done considerable reputational damage by its association with Aleksandr Kogan and with Cambridge Analytica, which is one of the reasons you’re having this enjoyable afternoon with us. Your testimony says that Aleksandr Kogan’s app has been banned. Has he also been banned?

MZ: Senator, I believe the answer to that is no, but I can follow up with you afterwards.

The Facebook CEO was perched on a height-boosting cushion for the interrogation over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. (AP)
The Facebook CEO was perched on a height-boosting cushion for the interrogation over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. (AP)

On the geographical focus of Cambridge Analytica’s data breach:

Senator Dean Heller: Yesterday Facebook sent out a notification to 87 million users that information was given to Cambridge Analytica without their consent. My daughter was one of the 87 million, and six of my staff, all from Nevada, received this notification.

Can you tell me how many Nevadans were among the 87 million that received this notification?

MZ: Senator, I don’t have this broken out by state right now. But I can have my team follow up with you to get you the information.

On whether Facebook would change its structure for safer data policies:

Senator Todd Young: Would you have to fundamentally change the Facebook architecture to accommodate those policies?

MZ: Senator, those policies and the principles that you articulated are generally how we view our service already. So depending on the details of what — what your — the proposal actually ends up being — and the details do just matter a huge amount here — it’s not clear that it would be a fundamental shift.

But the details really matter and if this is something you’re considering or working on, we would love to follow up with you on this because this is very important to get right.