Facebook CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has apologized for the Cambridge Analytica data breach. He made the apology on CNN last night: “We let the community down and I feel really bad and I’m sorry about that.”
Mark also made other statements: “I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you.”
When asked if Facebook impacted the presidential election results of 2016, Mark had this to say: “Oh that’s – that is hard. You know, I think that it is – it’s really hard for me to have a full assessment of that”
Mark also revealed his strategy for protecting users’ data:
- Blocking data access of apps you haven’t used for three months or more
- Auditing old apps that collected a lot of personal data
- Reducing the amount of data apps can pull using Facebook Login without an additional permissions screen to just your name, profile photo, and email address
- Telling people if their data was misused by the app associated with Cambridge Analytica, or apps Facebook bans for misuse in the future
- Surfacing Facebook’s privacy third-party app privacy settings tool atop the News Feed to help people repeal access to apps
- Requiring a signed contract from developers that want to pull your posts or private information.
We do not know how much Facebook will be able to enforce control over third-party apps, as this is where firms that collect data from users are having challenges.
