Facebook blasted over data breaches, The Zuck admits they made mistakes
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users and promised tougher steps to restrict developers'...
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has broken his silence after mounting pressure regarding a massive data breach involving 50 million Facebook users and has promised steps to prevent it from happening again.
The social media network is under the spotlight after a whistleblower's allegations that London-based political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, gained access to user information to build profiles on American users. It has been reported that these profiles were used to help elect U.S President Donald Trump in 2016.
Despite the growing list of allegations, The Zuck remained mum in the face of the criticism and it was not until Wednesday that he responded in a lengthy post on his Facebook page.
He said Facebook has a "responsibility to protect your date, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you."
Zuckerberg announced a three-step plan to combat future breaches as well as conducting a full audit on this breach, involving over 50 million people.
"We will investigate all apps that had access to large amount of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity."
To combat future breaches, Zuckerberg said Facebook would be implementing stricter access for developers who want to access data as will as automatically reducing the amount of data you, the user, give when using an app.
I want to share an update on the Cambridge Analytica situation -- including the steps we've already taken and our next...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 21 March 2018
A tool will be introduced to show you which apps you have already given access to your data and an easier way to revoke those apps' permission to your data will be introduced.
The company lost more the $45-billion of its stock market value over the past few days after the news hit.
Christopher Wylie, the person who blew the lid on the scandal said would testify about the breach.
Accepting invitation to testify before US House Intelligence Committee, US House Judiciary Committee & UK Parliament Digital Committee. It’s time for our democratic institutions to take control @HouseJudDems @AdamSchiffCA @CommonsCMS @DamianCollins
— Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 21, 2018
Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica suspended its Chief Executive after he was caught in a secret recording boasting about how the company played a big role in Trump's victory.