US lawmakers demand Facebook to come clean over Chinese data sharing

Facebook Inc faced criticism on Wednesday from Republican and Democratic US lawmakers who demanded that the social media company be more forthcoming about data it has shared with four Chinese firms. 

The bipartisan criticism reflected rising frustration in Congress about how Facebook protects the privacy of the more than 2 billion people who use its services worldwide. The leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee accused Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg of failing to disclose the company’s agreements with the Chinese firms when he appeared before them in April and testified about Facebook’s sharing of users’ personal information with third parties.

Facebook trying to weaken WhatsApp privacy? Co-founder Jan Koum quits

The co-founder of WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook Inc with more than 1 billion daily users, said on Monday he was leaving the company, in a loss of one of the strongest advocates for privacy inside Facebook.

Jan Koum's plan to exit comes after clashing with the parent company over WhatApp's strategy and Facebook's attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption, the Washington Post earlier reported, citing people familiar with the internal discussions.

"It's been almost a decade since Brian and I started WhatsApp, and it's been an amazing journey with some of the best people," Koum, WhatsApp's chief executive, said in a post on his Facebook page referring to co-founder Brian Acton.

"But it is time for me to move on." He did not give a date for his departure and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Acton left the messaging service company in September to start a foundation, after spending eight years with WhatsApp.

Digital transformation should not degrade humanity: Satya Nadella

With organisations across the globe going through an unprecedented level of digital transformation to enhance productivity, Microsoft's India-born chief Satya Nadella today cautioned that new technologies should not "degrade" humanity but provide new levels of inclusiveness.

In his keynote address at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida Nadella spoke about the upcoming quantum computing era and gave examples of how it could help solve some of the planets biggest challenges.

"We want more productivity and efficiency but we do not want to degrade humanity," Nadella said at the conference being attended by some 25,000 technology experts and analysts.

"We want technology to provide new levels of inclusiveness," Nadella said, as his Ignite keynote was being translated for the first time in 12 languages with the use of artificial intelligence.

"As we talk about technology, one of the things we need as technologists and decision makers is keeping in mind the timeless values that drive what we do," he said, adding that the most critical thing "for us is to bring all of us, across our functional roles, across all our expertise and skills," to support this process of continuous change and renewal.

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