You knew Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency would come under scrutiny as soon as it became official, and the US government isn't wasting any time.
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters has issued a statement calling on Facebook to pause development of Libra until Congress and regulatory bodies have had a chance to review it.
The social network has "repeatedly shown a disregard" for safeguarding user data, Waters said, suggesting that privacy issues could come back to haunt this product.
The congresswoman also said that Facebook executives should testify about Libra as part of that oversight.We've asked Facebook for comment. As part of the announcement, though, it launched a Libra Association whose aim is to oversee the currency outside of Facebook's control.
Calibra, the digital wallet for the new monetary format, is supposed to share only limited data with Facebook and have "strong protections" such as automated fraud checks.
Those measures might not satisfy politicians.
Numerous federal and stateregulators are investigating Facebook's behavior in recent years, and there's no question that the internet giant has been awash in privacy debacles even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal had seemingly wound down.
Waters and others just don't have much of a historical basis to trust what Facebook says, even though it appears to be learning its lessons.
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters has issued a statement calling on Facebook to pause development of Libra until Congress and regulatory bodies have had a chance to review it.
The social network has "repeatedly shown a disregard" for safeguarding user data, Waters said, suggesting that privacy issues could come back to haunt this product.
The congresswoman also said that Facebook executives should testify about Libra as part of that oversight.We've asked Facebook for comment. As part of the announcement, though, it launched a Libra Association whose aim is to oversee the currency outside of Facebook's control.
Calibra, the digital wallet for the new monetary format, is supposed to share only limited data with Facebook and have "strong protections" such as automated fraud checks.
Those measures might not satisfy politicians.
Numerous federal and stateregulators are investigating Facebook's behavior in recent years, and there's no question that the internet giant has been awash in privacy debacles even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal had seemingly wound down.
Waters and others just don't have much of a historical basis to trust what Facebook says, even though it appears to be learning its lessons.
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst When the EU is proactively reacting to it, this Congresswoman is asking for FB to stop Libra project until politicians see what is about. On the one hand, the Libra Project must, in order to work, pass through regulations and political hurdles all around the world, on the other hand, most politicians (and their economic backers) will make everything possible to stop or impede any advancement which means deep disruption of the "normal as usual" financial world. What a world we are living now!