I am a tech guy, but not a Facebook all-day user. I mostly use Facebook to express my political views rather than share family photos and cat pictures. However, I have been following the issue of data privacy closely so the hearings of the past couple of days were something I have watched closely.
I must say I did learn two things I had not noticed and probably should have. First, I did not know that Facebook has a version of Messenger for Kids. Facebook has tried to create a service that recognizes the COPPA requirements and still offer something for the under 13 crowd. However, this effort has received a lot of negative press and was brought up during the hearings. On the surface, this seems an honest effort and while I suppose it could increase screen time it puts the decisions to be made under the control of parents. How is using Facebook any different from Apple’s Facetime when it comes to talking with grandma and grandpa.
Second, I learned that Facebook’s Trending Topics has a liberal bias (or at least that was the Republican claim). I have never actually taken a close look at trending topics because I friend the news sources I want to view. Friending embeds content from these sources in my timeline. Yes, most of the sources I friend some would consider liberal (NY Times and the Washington Post), but I just consider these sources that actually involve journalism. Anyway, I did make the effort to locate the trending section (to the right of the timeline), but I can make no comment on the bias this section presents.
