Mark Zuckerberg came away with a win yesterday in his marathon five-hour appearance before Congress; Facebook shares closed the day up 4.5 percent, its best trading day in two years. Wearing a navy blue suit and a royal blue tie instead of his usual T-shirt and jeans, the Facebook CEO sounded smart answering questions about how Facebook’s services work. He fielded a couple of tough questions: Sen. Lindsey Graham essentially asked if the company was a monopoly; Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked if the company would agree to having users consciously opt in to let companies use their data, instead of the current opt out by default. At the end of the day, many of the senators said that they looked forward to working with Zuckerberg on whatever regulation comes about. He’ll be back today at 10 am ET for a separate hearing in front of the House Commerce Committee. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Recode Daily: Congress pokes — and ultimately ‘Likes’ — Mark Zuckerberg
Plus, how to check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, watch out for those seemingly innocuous social media quizzes, and when a robot makes you dinner.
Here’s how to check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, even if you’ve never interacted with the firm. The data was collected via a third-party app called “This is your digital life” that was created by a university professor to collect information from people who signed into the app using their Facebook account. Meanwhile, a joint SurveyMonkey/Recode poll found that Facebook is the least-trusted major tech company among U.S. users. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Don’t give away historic details about yourself on those seemingly innocuous quizzes, games and surveys on social media sites. The problem with participating in these informal surveys — which ask, “What was your first job,” or “What was your first pet?” — is that in doing so you may be inadvertently giving away the answers to “secret questions” that can be used to unlock access to a host of your online identities and accounts. [Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security]
Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette’s vacation is over: He’s becoming a VC. The Montreal-born executive is joining a Canadian firm called iNovia Capital and said he is determined to bet on the Canadian venture capital scene. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
Recode Presents ...
Mark Zuckerberg testified yesterday before a joint session of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Commerce Committees, and today the Facebook CEO will testify in the House of Representatives, too. What questions do you have about what he has said and what the U.S. government might do next? Send them in for this week’s Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast! Tweet your questions with the hashtag #TooEmbarrassed, or email TooEmbarrassed@recode.net.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
