ELECTION SECURITY BRIEFING COMING UP
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said that the Senate will have an election security briefing in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“We intend to have a briefing on election security,” McConnell told reporters during a weekly press conference while not responding to questions about whether the upper chamber will take up any election security legislation.
McConnell’s comments mark the first time that he has confirmed he will hold an all-members election security briefing since Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said from the Senate floor that he had received assurances from the Senate GOP leader that there would be a closed-door briefing with administration officials.
“I have some positive news. I have spoken to the Republican leader about that request. He has assured me we will have a briefing,” Schumer said from the Senate floor last week.
The closed-door briefing comes as senators have mounted a bipartisan push in the wake of Mueller’s report to try to move election security legislation through the Senate but have run into high-profile opposition from McConnell and Blunt.
Read more on the briefing here.
NOT NOW, FACEBOOK: Facebook announced on Tuesday a new market research initiative designed to understand how consumers interact with apps, which will include collecting a large amount of data about participants in the study.
The new “Study from Facebook” program will involve Facebook users voluntarily downloading a separate app and allowing it to collect information on how much they use other programs. Information on what data will be collected will be available to users in advance and users will be financially compensated, Facebook said.
Information collected will include what apps are installed on the user’s phone, the amount of time they spend on these apps, what country the participant is in, and app activity names.
Facebook wrote it believes “this work is important to help us improve our products for the people who use Facebook.”
None of the data collected will be sold to third parties or used in targeted adds and it won’t include user IDs, passwords, or a user’s Facebook profile content, Facebook said. The company promised to keep all data “safe and secure.”
Only users over 18 will be allowed to participate, and the program is just being rolled out in the United States and India to begin with, although Facebook said it will be expanded to other countries “over time.”
