Mark Zuckerberg’s mea culpa moment before a joint hearing of the US Senate commerce and judiciary committees would have been a humbling experience for the young billionaire. The Facebook founder even shed his customary T-shirt and jeans for a business suit, but what he said may not have convinced everyone that companies like his can do much to keep people’s data and privacy secure. The toxicity of personal data in today’s age is a complex problem. The belated good intentions of new economy firms offering social connectivity in exchange for users’ personal details may not amount to much, particularly in exploitation of such data for purposes like “fixing” elections by targeting voters in democracies.
Admitting “this is an ongoing arms race”, Zuckerberg promised that the coming elections in India and Pakistan would be fair, and not subject to Russian-type intervention as in US President Donald Trump’s election. He came away with a stern warning from the senators that if Facebook and others don’t fix the privacy issue, the US government would intervene. The Indian government has also been trying to convince those handling Indian data to locate their servers in the country. While this may not help much as data can be stolen even from a server secured inside Fort Knox, server location might help legally in terms of territorial control. A significant comment by the Facebook founder was that he wasn’t against regulation, but it should be the “right regulation”. Owning up responsibility, as Zuckerberg seemed to, is great but how to regulate discretion over how people freely give away personal data is still a riddle. The question that arises from the Facebook inquisition is whether we are any nearer solving it.
