Lawmakers eyeing Facebook, Google business models

Lawmakers are working on a combination of bills that aim to restrict Facebook and Google’s business models to ensure user information is not compromised, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told FOX Business on Thursday

“We are looking … and having conversations about the best way to proceed to make sure that when people consent to something in their user agreement they know in fact what they are consenting to,” he said to Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.”

Facebook has been embroiled in controversy since mid-March after inadvertently allowing political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to collect personal data from at least 87 million users, which was then allegedly used to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Two months after CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, new privacy concerns about Facebook have arisen. Thune and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wrote a letter to Zuckerberg demanding answers based on a recent report that alleges numerous device manufacturers were given special access to data on users and friends.

“Those were things that didn’t get covered and that he didn’t talk about at the hearing when we had him here previously,” he said.

Congress is also reportedly looking at Google’s relationship with China’s Huawei, which has been labeled as a national security threat by U.S. intelligence, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We are very concerned about the prospect of China embedding their technology in our equipment or them stealing our technology and embedding it in theirs,” he added.