Expert says Congress' investigation of Facebook has tech implications

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We are learning it was more than 50 million people whose data was improperly shared on Facebook - it was 87 million.

Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is being called to testify before Congress next week.

Questions about you like where you are, how much money do you make and what makes you sick, can be found available online.

"All of our whereabouts, our location data, that's all tracked and stored," said David Derigiotis. "(With finances) you may be giving up information for like this text foundation, we need to look at what information they are collecting on us.

"Not only sharing (what makes us sick) with Google but health information could be shared with maybe its medical or pharmaceutical companies. Those that have products or some type of pill or medication that could remedy that type of ailment."

All of it is being recorded when you log on and start asking Google questions.   More on how all tech companies may have to revisit their MO in a moment.  Facebook is coming under fire for the data mining that took place by third party, Cambridge Analytica last month.

"When (Mark Zuckerberg) found out about this information leak and about the data being collected by Cambridge," Derigiotis said. "Why did (Facebook) not notify the consumers and the users of Facebook that this had happened?"

Derigiotis, with Burns and Wilcox, says questions may go deeper with this recent breach.  In 2011, the social giant cake under scrutiny for sharing information. What has changed, the congressional leadership will ask. 

"Facebook was stating 's hey were not sharing data with advertisers," Derigiotis said. "The FTC found out otherwise. FTC also found out otherwise. They found out that Facebook was making a claim that they were verifying third-party apps, security and so-forth.  Facebook was not doing it."

Google, and other sites out there that collect information, may create a call for more regulations.  If the financial sector, health care, television and other industries have them-should Tech be relegated by regulations too?

"(Other tech companies) are going to be watching this very carefully because this will have serious implications for them," Derigiotis said. "Are they taking security and privacy seriously? Are they doing what they are saying and are they saying what they are doing?"

Technically, Google has not said anything they are not doing, and have not done anything that they have already told you about. If you read the privacy settings on Google searches it will tell you what you are searching for, could shared by a third party. There are other options for internet searches that promise to protect your privacy from third parties. 

A couple examples are:

https://duckduckgo.com/

https://www.startpage.com/