Zuckerberg Responds To Data Scandal, Admits Mistake

After days of silence Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken responsibility for the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and has outlined the steps the company will take to stop an event like this in the future.

In a post Zuckerberg admits what happened with Cambridge Analytica was his fault but offered no apology, “I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community.”

On Monday, controversial political research company Cambridge Analytica was found to have access to over 50 million Facebook users personal data.

The US Federal Trade Commission and will be investigating Facebook after the data breach to see if it violated terms on an earlier consent decree when data of those users was uploaded to Cambridge Analytica.

Zuckerberg outlines the three steps Facebook will take to stop apps from taking user’s data. Its first step will be to conduct a full audit of any app with ‘suspicious activity’.

“We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit. And if we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them and tell everyone affected by those apps. That includes people whose data Kogan misused here as well.”

Its second move will to be restricting data access from developers to prevent other kinds of abuse. Zuckerberg explains, “We will remove developers’ access to your data if you haven’t used their app in 3 months. We will reduce the data you give an app when you sign in — to only your name, profile photo, and email address. We’ll require developers to not only get approval but also sign a contract in order to ask anyone for access to their posts or other private data.”

Thirdly, the social media company will give users information to understand which apps they’ve allowed access to their data.

“In the next month, we will show everyone a tool at the top of your News Feed with the apps you’ve used and an easy way to revoke those apps’ permissions to your data. We already have a tool to do this in your privacy settings, and now we will put this tool at the top of your News Feed to make sure everyone sees it.”

Lawmakers in both the UK and US are reviewing Facebook and its role in both Brexit and the 2016 US election. Politicians from both countries are demanding CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before them to explain how Cambridge Analytica was able to obtain all this data which in turn helped Trump win the election.

After news broke of the data scandal, Facebook lost US$30bn, the biggest drop its had since 2015.