Ahead of Facebook CEO’s anticipated appearance before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday morning (EDT), Mark Zuckerberg submitted his written testimony on Tuesday.
“I believe [Libra] is something that needs to get built, but I understand we’re not the ideal messenger right now,” he acknowledged. “We’ve faced a lot of issues over the past few years, and I’m sure people wish it was anyone but Facebook putting this idea forward.”
The hearing—titled, ‘An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors’—will have Zuckerberg as its only witness.
Also worth noting is that Zuckerberg said Facebook does not sell people’s personal information. He said:
“We use information about transactions that happen on our products to improve our services, including advertising. However, we do not use people’s payment account information itself for advertising purposes,”
He added:
“Calibra will not share customers’ account information or financial data with Facebook, except to prevent fraud or criminal activity, when people affirmatively choose to share their data, or when we are legally obligated to do so,”
“Payments processed through Facebook’s licensed payments subsidiaries are subject to comprehensive anti-money laundering, counterterrorist financing, and sanctions monitoring that leverage both our automated systems and human review, and we report suspicious payments activity to applicable authorities consistent with our regulatory obligations. We also have policies in place to prevent fraud.”
According to Zuckerberg’s prepared remarks released on October 22nd:
“Facebook will not be part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world until US regulators approve.”