Cambridge Analytica stole, sold my data too: Zuckerberg

WASHINGTON DC: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told US lawmakers that his personal data was also harvested and sold by Cambridge Analytica and he intends to initiate legal action against the British firm accused of stealing personal information and using it for political purposes.

Zuckerberg replied "yes" when asked if his personal data was included in the information sold to the "malicious third parties" by the lawmakers during a testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Cambridge Analytica compromised personal information of approximately 87 million users, half a million of whom were from India.

The American people are concerned about how Facebook protects and profits from its users' data, lawmakers said.

Beginning this Monday, Facebook has started to notify those users whose data have been breached.

Responding to a volley of questions, Zuckerberg, 33, said it would take some time to work through all the changes the company needs to make.

"But I am committed to getting this right, and that includes the basic responsibility of protecting people's information, which we failed to do with Cambridge Analytica," he said.

Zuckerberg said he was getting to the bottom of what the Uk-based firm did and will tell everyone who may have been affected.

"What we know now is that Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained some information about millions of Facebook members by buying it from an app developer that people had shared it with," he said.

"This information was generally information that people share publicly on their profile pages, like their name and profile picture and the list of pages that they follow. When we first contacted Cambridge Analytica, they told us that they had deleted the data. And then, about a month ago, we heard a new report that suggested that this was not true," he said.

Now the Facebook is working with governments in the US, the UK and around the world to do a full audit of what they've done and to make sure that they get rid of any data that they still have.

Responding to a question, he told lawmakers that he intended to initiate legal action against the firm accused of stealing personal data and using it for political purposes in the 2016 US Presidential elections.

To make sure that no other app developers are out there misusing data, Facebook is now investigating every single app that had access to a large amount of people's information on Facebook in the past. "If we find someone that improperly used data, we're going to ban them from our platform and tell everyone affected," he said.

To prevent this from ever happening again, Facebook is making sure developers can't access as much information, going forward, he said

"The good news here is that we made some big changes to our platform in 2014 that would prevent this specific instance with Cambridge Analytica from happening again on Thursday. But there's more to do, and you can find more of the details of the other steps we're taking in the written statement I provided," he said.

Zuckerberg told lawmakers that Facebook had now removed the option for advertisers to exclude ethnic groups from targeting.

"Every time, there is a control right there - not buried in settings somewhere, but right there, when they're posting about who they want to share it with," he added.

Zuckerberg asserted that Facebook did not sell data.

"We don't sell data. That's not how advertising works, and I do think we could probably be doing a clearer job explaining that, given the misperceptions that are out there," he said in response to a question.

Facebook is neither a media or a financial institution, he said.

"I consider us to be a technology company, because the primary thing that we do is have engineers who write code and build products and services for other people," he said.

"There are certainly other things that we do, too. We do pay to help produce content. We build enterprise software, although I don't consider us an enterprise software company. We build planes to help connect people, and I don't consider ourselves to be an aerospace company," he said.

It is clear now that Facebook didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy, he said.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I am sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and, at the end of the day, I am responsible for what happens here. So, now, we have to go through every part of our relationship with people to make sure that we're taking a broad enough view of our responsibility," he said. SINGAPORE: An elderly polar bear at Singapore zoo, one of the site's most beloved animals, may be put down after its health deteriorated markedly, the zoo operator said on Thursday.

Inuka, the first polar bear born in the tropics, has reached the grand old age of 27 -- well into his 70s in human years and two years older than the average lifespan of the creatures in captivity. Zoo operator Wildlife Reserves Singapore said an April 3 examination revealed that the health of Inuka, who has been receiving treatment for arthritis for some time, had declined markedly.

The bear's activity levels have fallen over the past three months and he now prefers resting over interacting with his keepers, a statement said.

Inuka -- who was born at the zoo, and whose name means "Silent Stalker" in Inuit -- had been popular with visitors due to his playful antics in his pool enclosure. But he has now cut back on swimming, his walking is stiffer, and he is less interested in his daily playing sessions involving traffic cones, balls and ice blocks embedded with his favourite food, the zoo said.

Veterinarians have ramped up the bear's daily care regimen and are administering medication, and a second health check will take place in late April.

"If results indicate that Inuka's welfare is not improving with these intensive treatments, his care team may have to make the very difficult decision not to allow him to recover from anaesthesia on humane and welfare grounds," said the statement.

Inuka's annual birthday celebration is one of the high points for visitors in the zoo's calendar, and last year he marked it with a special jelly and salmon cake.

As few as 22,000 polar bears are thought to remain in the wild, according to environmental group the WWF. Protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies them as vulnerable.

Cambridge Analytica compromised personal information of approximately 87 million users, half a million of whom were from India