Google CEO to testify before House committee over transparency, privacy protection

Google CEO Sundar Pichai will testify before U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee next Tuesday over the company's transparency and privacy policy, as well as data collection and use.

In this Jan. 24, 2018, file photo Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, speaks during a conversation as part of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. [File photo: AP/Markus Schreiber]

The hearing, which was announced on the committee's official website Tuesday, was rescheduled from Wednesday when a funeral will be held for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who died last Friday at the age of 94.

The hearing will focus on Google's "data collection, use and filtering practices," according to the committee's announcement, and Pichai is expected to answer questions from lawmakers over alleged bias against conservative content on its platform.

In his first congressional appearance, Pichai will also be questioned about the tech company's search algorithm, how it collects and use data, a two-year bug that exposed users' private information, foreign interference on social media, and misinformation.

The Google CEO skipped a high-profile tech hearing in Congress in September when both Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified.

On Thursday, Pichai will attend a separate meeting on innovation policy at the White House with top executives from other tech companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and Qualcomm.