Zuckerberg turns his fire on Cambridge University
Facebook founder tells Congress ‘something bad’ may have been going on with data gathering apps
MARK ZUCKERBERG, the chief executive of Facebook, became embroiled in a row with the University of Cambridge yesterday after he said that it was harbouring researchers who improperly harvested data from some of the social network’s 2.2 billion users.
His claim that “something bad” was going on at Cambridge came during his second day of testimony to the US Congress. Mr Zuckerberg has been attempting to explain the privacy implications of a data breach at Facebook.
The origins of that breach came in 2014 when Dr Aleksandr Kogan, a researcher at Cambridge, created a personality quiz app. About 270,000 people were paid to take it in exchange for consenting to the collection of their personal information.
The program vacuumed up not just their information, but also that of people with whom they were friends on Facebook. Loose restrictions the company had in place at the time allowed that to happen.
In all, an estimated 87million Facebook users, including a million in the UK, had data collected and sold to Cambridge Analytica, a private election consulting firm that counted Donald Trump’s campaign among its clients.
Facebook has since shut off the ability of apps to gather such data, but Mr Zuckerberg said that it would take “many months” to discover if other apps had also done so.
He told Congress that he believed that there were researchers at the University of Cambridge, in addition to Dr Kogan, who had been building similar programs. He also confirmed that he was considering legal action against Dr Kogan, the University of Cambridge, and Cambridge Analytica, potentially for breach of contract.
The university expressed “surprise” at the 33-year-old billionaire’s aggressive comments, and challenged him to produce evidence to back up his allegations. In a statement the university said: “We would be surprised if Mr Zuckerberg was only now aware of research at the University of Cambridge looking at what an individual’s Facebook data says about them.
“Our researchers have been publishing such research since 2013 in major peer-reviewed scientific journals, and these studies have been reported widely in international media.”
It said that those studies had included one in 2015 led by Dr Kogan and co-written by two Facebook staff.
The university said that it had written to Facebook on March 21 asking the company to provide evidence to support its specific allegations about Dr Kogan but had received no response. Dr Kogan has claimed that Facebook is making him a “scapegoat” after it was left reeling by its inability to protect users’ data.
During his testimony Mr Zuckerberg also disclosed that he had been among the 87 million people whose data was harvested by Dr Kogan’s app, which was called Thisisyourdigitallife.
Asked by a congressman if his own data had been improperly used, Mr Zuckerberg replied, “Yes,” but gave no further details.
At the hearing Mr Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard, eschewed his usual T-shirt or hooded top in favour of a smart, dark blue suit and tie.
Eliot Engel, a Democrat congressman from New York, asked him: “You say that Facebook was deceived by Aleksandr Kogan when he sold user information to Cambridge Analytica, does Facebook therefore plan to sue Aleksandr Kogan, Cambridge University, or Cambridge Analytica, perhaps for unauthorised access to computer networks, exceeding access to computer networks, or breach of contract? Why, or why not?”
Mr Zuckerberg replied: “It’s something that we’re looking into. We already took action by banning him [Dr Kogan] from the platform, and we’re going to be doing a full audit to make sure he gets rid of all the data he has as well.
“To your point about Cambridge University what we found now is there is a whole programme associated with Cambridge University where a number of researchers, not just Aleksandr Kogan – although to our current knowledge he’s the only one that sold the data to Cambridge Analytica – were build- ing similar apps. So, we do need to understand whether there was something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger action from us.”
The news that Mr Zuckerberg’s own data had been harvested laid bare the problem that his company faces. Critics suggested that if even if the company’s founder could not protect his personal information, how could ordinary users?
Last night Cambridge Analytica said its acting chief executive was stepping down. It said Alexander Tayler would return to his previous role as chief data officer to “focus on the various technical investigations and inquiries” the company was facing. Mr Zuckerberg was coached for his congressional appearances which lasted 10 hours over two days and brought with him notes
‘We would be surprised if [he] was only now aware of research at the university looking at what an individual’s Facebook data says about them’
showing answers he intended to give to specific questions. His prepared response to any suggestion that Facebook should be broken up was: “Breakup strengthens Chinese companies.”
In London Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, warned senior Facebook executives that the Government would “hold their feet to the fire” unless they cleaned up the company’s handling of users’ personal data.
During a “robust” meeting he told the social media giant’s senior management team that their practices were “nowhere near” the standards expected. He said that social media companies were “not above the law” and could face further regulation.