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Lori Swanson Among 37 AGs Demanding Answers From Facebook

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) -- Minnesota's Lori Swanson is among the chief law enforcement officers for 37 U.S. states and territories demanding to know when Facebook learned of a huge breach of privacy protections.

The officers say in a letter Monday to CEO Mark Zuckerberg that users' trust in the social media platform is "broken."

The attorneys general are asking how Facebook monitored what these developers did with all the data they collected and whether Facebook had safeguards to prevent misuse.

They also asked Zuckerberg for an update on how Facebook will allow users to more easily control the privacy of their accounts.

"Users of Facebook deserve to know the answers to these questions and more. We are committed to protecting our residents' personal information. More specifically, we need to understand Facebook's policies and procedures in light of the reported misuse of data by developers," the letter reads.

The letter was signed by Swanson, in addition to Iowa attorney general Tom Miller and North Dakota attorney general Wayne Stenehjem.

Cambridge Analytica, a political data-mining firm, is accused of lifting data from some 50 million Facebook users to influence voters in the 2016 elections.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he's invited Zuckerberg to testify at a hearing next month on data privacy.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa says the April 10 hearing will cover how consumer data is collected, retained and distributed for commercial use. He says the hearing also will examine what steps companies like Facebook can do to better protect personal information.

Grassley's committee is the third congressional panel to seek Zuckerberg's testimony in the wake of a privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.

Several Judiciary Committee members had pressed Grassley to hold the hearing. Grassley says he's also invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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