Facebook Judge Probes Leak of Records He Ordered Be Kept Private

(Bloomberg) -- A software company founder who handed over a trove of sensitive, internal Facebook Inc. records to the U.K. Parliament has some explaining to do before a California judge who’d ordered the documents be kept private.

Key Insights

• While the full cache of records hasn’t been made public, Facebook has put up a concerted effort to keep them from being exposed while it deals with a storm of controversy over its handling of user data.
• With the head of a parliamentary committee saying he plans to release the records within the coming week, a hearing set for Friday in San Mateo County Superior Court will give the judge an opportunity to voice his concerns after he hears an explanation of the leak from Six4Three LLC co-founder Ted Kramer.
• During a hearing earlier Tuesday in Parliament, lawmaker Damian Collins and officials from other nations lambasted Facebook for abusing public trust and failing to provide honest answers to questions about the misuse of user data -- while a chair reserved for CEO Mark Zuckerberg remained empty.

• Facebook has asked the judge to levy sanctions against Six4Three and Kramer for violating his order sealing the documents.

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For background on the leak, click here
To read about Tuesday’s parliamentary hearing, click here

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Burnson in San Francisco at rburnson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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