SYDNEY, Aug 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Global privacy regulators joined forces
Tuesday to demand guarantees from Facebook on how it will protect users’
financial data when it launches its planned cryptocurrency, Libra.
The watchdogs from Australia, the US, EU, Britain, Canada and other
countries issued an open letter calling on Facebook to respond to more than a
dozen concerns over how it will handle sensitive personal information of
users of the digital currency.
The letter follows a chorus of warnings about Facebook’s entry into the
shadowy world of digital banking, including at a meeting last month of
finance ministers and central bankers from the G7 group of most developed
economies.
The watchdogs said that Facebook and its subsidiary Calibra “have failed to
specifically address the information handling practices that will be in place
to secure and protect personal information”.
Facebook’s handling of user data, highlighted by the Cambridge Analytica
scandal, had “not met the expectations of regulators or their own users”,
they said.
The social media giant’s latest project faced similar risks, they said,
adding that the “combination of vast reserves of personal information with
financial information and cryptocurrency amplifies our privacy concerns about
the Libra Network’s design and data sharing arrangements”.
The regulators demanded Facebook provide guarantees that user information,
such as transaction histories, will not be shared without explicit consent
and that all personal data will be adequately secured by all parties in the
Libra network.
Facebook announced the launch of Libra in June, with Calibra slated to run
a digital wallet and provide financial services using blockchain technology.
The currency is to be overseen by a Geneva-based Libra Association of
companies, and Swiss authorities have also pledged tight oversight of the
operation.
Libra is widely regarded as a challenger to dominant global player bitcoin.
Expected to launch in the first half of 2020, Libra is designed to be
backed by a basket of currency assets to avoid the wild swings of bitcoin and
other cryptocurrencies.