The most powerful example came from Rep. Ben Luján (D-NM), who confronted Zuckerberg on the company’s use of shadow profiles — a term for non-user data collection that Zuckerberg was apparently unfamiliar with.
“It’s been admitted that you do collect data points on non-Facebook users,” Luján asked. “So my question is, can someone who does not have a Facebook account opt out of Facebook’s involuntary data collection?”
“Congressman, anyone can opt out of any data collection for ads, whether they use our services or not,” Zuckerberg said. “But in order to prevent people from scraping public information, we need to know when someone is trying to repeatedly access our services.” “My question is, can someone who does not have a Facebook account opt out of data collection?”
“You’ve said everyone controls their data, but you’re collecting data on people who are not even Facebook users, who never signed a consent or privacy agreement and you’re collecting their data,” Luján continued. “And you’re directing people who don’t have a Facebook page to sign up for Facebook in order to get their data.”
Shadow profiles are the biggest flaw in Facebook’s privacy defense by Russell Brandom on The Verge