Facebook founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, has shared an update on the Cambridge Analytica situation in which the social media giant was unable to protect users’ data of about 50 million people on the platform.
Facebook had placed a ban on Cambridge Analytica after allegations emerged that a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan harvested personal data of about 50 million Americans using personality quiz app, and improperly shared same with data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica.
Privacy policy regulators have since begun probe into the data practices of Facebook that was implicated with Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections; with Zuckerberg expressing readiness to answer questions.
In the update shared by the Facebook chief executive on the platform he built in 2007, he said the social media platform made a mistake and that it has done and is doing everything possible to arrest the situation.
“The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.
“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you. I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has vividly explained steps Facebook have already taken years ago and more the social media platform will take to nip in the bud likely circumstances that led to the Cambridge Analytica situation.
In her reaction after Zuckerberg made the update, Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, immediately shared the Zuckerberg’s post with the following comment:
“We know that this was a major violation of peoples’ trust, and I deeply regret that we didn’t do enough to deal with it.”