Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is addressing a gathering of state attorneys general, answering their questions behind closed doors about the company’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Sandberg attended the National Association of Attorneys General gathering in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, Facebook confirmed, without providing further detail.
The executive will be doing a Q&A, the person said, declining to be identified because the information is private. The company has reached out to attorneys general since the scandal, but the conference provides a rare opportunity to speak to many of them all at once, the person added. Sandberg attended the same gathering in 2013.
The company has been under fire from the state legal authorities for its data practices. In March, the New York Times and other media outlets reported that an app developer passed information on millions of Facebook users without their consent to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Attorneys general from New York to Missouri have launched probes. Thirty-four states asked Facebook in March to answer questions over its data-sharing and privacy practices.
Some states, including Illinois, are asking other questions about Facebook’s data-sharing relationships with device makers including China’s Huawei Technologies Co., which the U.S. Government has flagged as a national security concern.
Facebook has been working to answer the federal government’s questions about its privacy scandals. The company sent Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to testify in front of Congress in April, and recently submitted answers to follow-up questions.
