Privacy, Economic Impact At The Core Of Facebook's Cryptocurrency Move In Switzerland

After United States lawmakers visited Switzerland and met with its financial regulation experts, they are still concerned about Libra. This is Facebook's proposed project for cryptocurrency. In an official press release from Representative Maxine Waters dated August 25, members of the United States House of Representatives met with many regulatory agencies and lawmakers. Some of those who were in the meetings include the Financial Services committee members of the House of Representatives, the State Secretariat for International Financial matters, the Supervisory Authority of Financial Markets and the Commissioner of the Federal Data Protection and Information Center.

The representatives planned to clear up how different Swiss officials would regulate Libra. They also wanted to learn more about the scope and status of Facebook's project. Although Representative Waters found the meetings to be helpful, she also stated that she continues to have concerns about letting a large technology company create an alternative global currency that will be controlled by private means.

David Marcus, who is the Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, said that Switzerland is a good fit for the project. Marcus is the co-developer of the Libra digital coin product.

A lot of the representatives and other officials from the United States are still not convinced. They have concerns about Facebook locating to Switzerland in order to avoid American regulations. Earlier in the week, Representative Waters said that Congress would continue its oversight and investigation into the Libra project. According to her, more reviews would be a priority for the Financial Services Committee.

Representative Waters leads the committee. She has been critical of Libra because of Facebook's past problematic history with data and privacy issues. Facebook has demonstrated a pattern of failure to keep user data private, with the scope of the problem being about as bad as the Equifax data breach of 2017. After Facebook released its idea for Libra in early 2019, Representative Waters requested that Facebook wait until Congress could investigate how it might impact the American economy. She also has concerns about how it could affect US monetary policies, and these investigations will be continuing.