Facebook's Zuckerberg breaks silence over 'data breach' scandal
Thu Mar 22, 2018 08:42:am Technology
3.4K By franklyn Anude
Since news broke in the US, about British data consultancy firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA) using data harvested from over 50 million Facebook users to create psychological profiles that may have been used by US president Donald Trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election, Chief Executive Officer and founder of the social network site, Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out for the first time, by apologizing for the mistakes his company made.
Facebook, the largest social media networking platform, is under growing pressure from US and European government to explain how such a massive data breach was allowed to happen.
This allegations made by a whistle blower, has already had its toll on facebooks stock market value, which plunged with the company losing more than $45 billion over the past three days.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg said on Wednesday
"This was a major breach of trust and I'm really sorry that this happened," he continued, in a televised interview with CNN.
"Our responsibility now is to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Zuckerberg also said he would be willing to testify before the US congress which has already summoned him if he is the best candidate to provide answers needed, adding that he was open to any additional government regulations.
"I'm not sure we shouldn't be regulated," he told CNN. "I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? ... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook."
The whistle-blower, Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, said the data was harvested through a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan and was downloaded by 270,000 people but it branched and retrieved data from their friends without consent -- as was possible under Facebook's rules at the time.
Wylie disclosed on his Twitter account that he had accepted invitations to testify before U.S. and UK lawmakers.
Facebook said it only discovered that Cambridge Analytica may not have deleted the data as it certified, last week.
"We should not have trusted Cambridge Analytica's certification, and we are not going to make that mistake again," Zuckerberg said.
He also posted a message on his Facebook page which read: "This was a breach of trust between Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook."
"But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it."
"We need to fix that."
Zuckerberg wrote that the social media platform was committed to stopping interference in the U.S. midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.
Facebook, the largest social media networking platform, is under growing pressure from US and European government to explain how such a massive data breach was allowed to happen.
This allegations made by a whistle blower, has already had its toll on facebooks stock market value, which plunged with the company losing more than $45 billion over the past three days.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg said on Wednesday
"This was a major breach of trust and I'm really sorry that this happened," he continued, in a televised interview with CNN.
"Our responsibility now is to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Zuckerberg also said he would be willing to testify before the US congress which has already summoned him if he is the best candidate to provide answers needed, adding that he was open to any additional government regulations.
"I'm not sure we shouldn't be regulated," he told CNN. "I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? ... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook."
The whistle-blower, Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, said the data was harvested through a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan and was downloaded by 270,000 people but it branched and retrieved data from their friends without consent -- as was possible under Facebook's rules at the time.
Wylie disclosed on his Twitter account that he had accepted invitations to testify before U.S. and UK lawmakers.
Facebook said it only discovered that Cambridge Analytica may not have deleted the data as it certified, last week.
"We should not have trusted Cambridge Analytica's certification, and we are not going to make that mistake again," Zuckerberg said.
He also posted a message on his Facebook page which read: "This was a breach of trust between Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook."
"But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it."
"We need to fix that."
Zuckerberg wrote that the social media platform was committed to stopping interference in the U.S. midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.
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