Facebook plans to audit data-mining company

Social media giant also faces a Federal Trade Commission probe

NEW YORK — Facebook’s No. 2 executive says the company should have conducted an audit after learning that a political consultancy improperly accessed user data nearly three years ago.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told NBC’s “Today” show that, at the time, Facebook received legal assurances that Cambridge Analytica had deleted the improperly obtained information.

“What we didn’t do is … an audit, and we’re trying to do that now,” she said.

The audit of Cambridge Analytica is on hold in deference to a U.K. investigation, but Facebook has been conducting a broader review of its own practices and how other third-party apps use data.

In addition, Facebook announced Friday that it will require advertisers who want to run not just political ads, but also so-called “issue ads” — which may not endorse specific candidates or parties, but discuss political topics — to be verified.

The company is trying to strengthen its system ahead of this year’s U.S. midterm elections, as well as upcoming elections around the world. Political ads are already required to verify who is paying for them and where the advertiser is located. The issue ads requirement is new.

The company will also require the administrators of pages with a “large number” of followers to be verified. The move is intended to clamp down on fake pages and accounts that were used to disrupt the 2016 presidential elections in the U.S.

Page administrators and advertisers will be verified by being asked to provide a government-issued ID, says Facebook. To verify addresses, it will mail a postcard with a unique code that the recipient can enter into Facebook. This is similar to how Airbnb and other services verify addresses.

Facebook is facing a global backlash over the improper data-sharing scandal. Hearings are scheduled in the U.S., and the European Union is considering what actions to take against the company.

Sandberg also told NBC that if users were able to opt out of being shown ads, “at the highest level, that would be a paid product.” Zuckerberg has made similar statements in the past, but has added that Facebook remains committed to offering a free service paid for by advertising.

Facebook users can opt out of seeing targeted ads, but can’t shut off ads altogether. Neither can they opt entirely out of Facebook’s data collection.

Sandberg gave several interviews this week as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress next week, where the issue of elections meddling is almost certain to come up.

Facebook also faces an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in what’s become the worst privacy crisis in its 14-year history.

It started with revelations that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed the private information of tens of millions of users to try to influence elections around the world. Over the past three weeks, the scandal continued. For one, Facebook executives took nearly five days to respond to the Cambridge Analytica reports.

Then, some users who logged in to Facebook vis Android devices discovered the company had been collecting information about phone calls they made and text messages they sent. Facebook also acknowledged this week that nearly all of its 2.2 billion users may have had their public data scraped by un-named “malicious actors.”