The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Apps to undergo investigation by Facebook
hearing: A contrite Mark Zuckerberg appears over Cambridge Analytica row
Facebook will investigate “tens of thousands” of apps to discover if any other companies have accessed data in a similar way to Cambridge Analytica (CA), Mark Zuckerberg has told US politicians.
The social network says it is in the process of letting up to 87 million users know that their information may have been accessed by CA, and in a packed room on Capitol Hill, Mr Zuckerberg repeated his admission that the company “didn’t do enough” to stop its tools “being used for harm”.
He also said the company was in an “arms race” with Russia, warning there were people in the country tasked with finding ways to breach Facebook’s systems.
After a torrid few weeks for the company’s share price, investors rewarded Mr Zuckerberg for appearing on the Hill.
Facebook stocks rose 4.5% on Tuesday, which is said to have swelled the entrepreneur’s fortune by several billion dollars.
Speaking to the Senate judiciary and commerce committees, the tech entrepreneur apologised that Facebook had not taken a “broad enough view” of its responsibility for people’s public information.
“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here,” he said, in words from a prepared statement.
Mr Zuckerberg said its audit of third-party apps would highlight any misuse of personal information, and said the company would alert users instantly if it “found anything suspicious”.
When asked why the company did not immediately alert the 87m users whose data may have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica (CA) when first told about the “improper” usage in 2015, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook considered it a “closed case” after CA said it had deleted it.
“In retrospect it was clearly a mistake to believe them,” he said.
CA insists it deleted the data harvested by Professor Aleksandr Kogan’s personality quiz app as soon as it was informed it breached Facebook’s terms of use.
Culture Secretary Matt Hancock met Facebook representatives in London yesterday.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face multiple lawsuits over alleged misuse of personal information with at least five law firms in the UK and US investigating claims for compensation.