ZUCK ABOUT-FACE
Contrite CEO admits to F’book ‘breach of trust’
Mark Zuckerberg has broken his silence, finally admitting to a “breach of trust” amid reports that Facebook recklessly handed over troves of user data that were exploited by a political consulting firm during the 2016 presidential election.
In a Facebook post, the tech billionaire said the social network “made mistakes” and vowed to beat disrupters by auditing thousands of apps and reining in their access to user data.
“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” he said, before launching into a blow-byblow timeline explaining how the scandal unfolded.
Zuckerberg pinned part of the blame on Cambridge Analytica, the data firm that hoovered up private information on 50 million users in an effort to tip the presidential election to Donald Trump.
He griped that there was “a breach of trust” between Facebook and the data firm, and singled out Aleksandr Kogan, the UK researcher who provided the data to Cambridge, nine times in his post.
Kogan, for his part, told the BBC he was being used as “a scapegoat” by both Facebook and the data firm.
The crisis has prompted lawmakers in the US and Eu- rope to call on the social network founder to testify at a time when the once-Teflon stock has been falling amid questions on Wall Street about the company’s management.
While less than a week ago Facebook execs had quibbled over the use of the word “breach” to describe the company’s data spill, Zuckerberg on Wednesday admitted to a breach of trust “between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it.”
Zuckerberg vowed that Facebook would investigate any apps that had access to large amounts of user information before it changed its data access policy in 2014. Suspicious apps will be audited and banned if they won’t submit to an audit, he said.
He also promised that any- one affected by apps that misused personally identifiable information will be notified by the social network, including the 50 million whose data fell into the hands of Cambridge Analytica.
Developers will now have their access to user data severely restricted from the start, and will only be able to see users’ names, profile photos and e-mail addresses when they sign up, he indicated.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network also will roll out a new tool that will allow users to more easily see which apps currently have access to their data.
“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform,” Zuckerberg said.
“We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward,” he added.
Zuckerberg’s feel-good statement didn’t impress his company’s harshest critics. Sens. Edward Markey (DMass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) took to social media to declare that he has much more work to do to clean up the mess.
“You need to come to Congress and testify to this under oath,” Markey said.
responsibility “We have a data, to protect your then we and if we can’t serve you.” don’t deserve to — Mark Zuckerberg