Washington, DC – Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, released the following statement on the announcement of changes to Facebook’s privacy policy:
“OMG! FB changed its privacy policy! I continue to believe in offering an opt-in policy for information sharing rather than an opt-out policy, but I’m glad these changes will be implemented and appreciate the company’s responsiveness. We need to keep the pressure on Facebook to make it easier for users to control their privacy settings to protect personal information from third parties.
“I will continue to monitor the situation to ensure Coloradans – not Facebook – are ultimately in control of how their private information is shared. It is also important that Facebook fully educate its members on these changes so that you can have control over your own data. Social networking provides a great opportunity to connect family and friends, but it is important that privacy be respected and users are aware of how their information may be used” – Michael Bennet
The changes come in response to a request made by Bennet earlier this month. In April, Bennet urged Facebook to fix its private policy to block users’ personal information from being accessed by third parties without the users’ consent. Bennet, along with three colleagues, sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging the company to revisit its decision to provide select third party websites with personal information that users previously had the ability to keep private.