TheNewsGuru

Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

  • Facebook outlines steps to prevent abuse of users’ data on platform

    Facebook has outlined steps it will take to prevent the abuse and misuse of users’ data on billions of accounts on the social media platform.

    This is coming on the heels of allegations against Cambridge Analytica of harvesting users’ data on about 50 million accounts on Facebook.

    Facebook founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, opening up on the Cambridge Analytica situation, revealed the steps saying he deeply regret the mistake that led to the data analytics firm gaining access to the users’ data.

    “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.

    “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,” he added.

    Expatiating on the timeline of the events that led to the Cambridge Analytica situation, Zuckerberg said it all started in 2013.

    –Timeline of events–

    In 2007, we launched the Facebook Platform with the vision that more apps should be social. Your calendar should be able to show your friends’ birthdays, your maps should show where your friends live, and your address book should show their pictures. To do this, we enabled people to log into apps and share who their friends were and some information about them.

    In 2013, a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app. It was installed by around 300,000 people who shared their data as well as some of their friends’ data. Given the way our platform worked at the time this meant Kogan was able to access tens of millions of their friends’ data.

    In 2014, to prevent abusive apps, we announced that we were changing the entire platform to dramatically limit the data apps could access. Most importantly, apps like Kogan’s could no longer ask for data about a person’s friends unless their friends had also authorized the app. We also required developers to get approval from us before they could request any sensitive data from people. These actions would prevent any app like Kogan’s from being able to access so much data today.

    In 2015, we learned from journalists at The Guardian that Kogan had shared data from his app with Cambridge Analytica. It is against our policies for developers to share data without people’s consent, so we immediately banned Kogan’s app from our platform, and demanded that Kogan and Cambridge Analytica formally certify that they had deleted all improperly acquired data. They provided these certifications.

    Last week, we learned from The Guardian, The New York Times and Channel 4 that Cambridge Analytica may not have deleted the data as they had certified. We immediately banned them from using any of our services. Cambridge Analytica claims they have already deleted the data and has agreed to a forensic audit by a firm we hired to confirm this. We’re also working with regulators as they investigate what happened.

    This was a breach of trust between Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it. We need to fix that.

    –Steps to prevent misuse, abuse of users’ data on Facebook–

    In this case, we already took the most important steps a few years ago in 2014 to prevent bad actors from accessing people’s information in this way. But there’s more we need to do and I’ll outline those steps here:

    First, we will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity. We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit. And if we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them and tell everyone affected by those apps. That includes people whose data Kogan misused here as well.

    Second, we will restrict developers’ data access even further to prevent other kinds of abuse. For example, we will remove developers’ access to your data if you haven’t used their app in 3 months. We will reduce the data you give an app when you sign in — to only your name, profile photo, and email address. We’ll require developers to not only get approval but also sign a contract in order to ask anyone for access to their posts or other private data. And we’ll have more changes to share in the next few days.

    Third, we want to make sure you understand which apps you’ve allowed to access your data. In the next month, we will show everyone a tool at the top of your News Feed with the apps you’ve used and an easy way to revoke those apps’ permissions to your data. We already have a tool to do this in your privacy settings, and now we will put this tool at the top of your News Feed to make sure everyone sees it.

    –Moving forward–

    I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community.

    While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn’t change what happened in the past.

    We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.

    I want to thank all of you who continue to believe in our mission and work to build this community together.

    I know it takes longer to fix all these issues than we’d like, but I promise you we’ll work through this and build a better service over the long term, Zuckerberg wrote.

     

  • Facebook CEO opens up on Cambridge Analytica

    Facebook CEO opens up on Cambridge Analytica

    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.”

     

  • Facebook loses $40 billion market value

    Facebook loses $40 billion market value

    Facebook shares closed down nearly 7.0 per cent on Monday, wiping nearly $40 billion off its market value as investors worried that new legislation could damage the company’s advertising business.

    TheNewsGuru reports Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been under pressure after privacy regulators launched a probe into how the social media giant handles users’ data following reports that Facebook lost control of more than 50 million user profiles to Cambridge Analytica.

    The criticism of Cambridge Analytica presents a new threat to Facebook’s reputation, which is already under attack over Russia’s alleged use of Facebook tools to sway U.S. voters with divisive and false news posts before and after the 2016 election.

    “The lid is being opened on the black box of Facebook data practices, and the picture is not pretty,” said Frank Pasquale, a University of Maryland law professor who has written about Silicon Valley’s use of data.

    On Monday, Facebook said it had hired forensic auditors from the firm Stroz Friedberg to investigate and determine whether Cambridge Analytica still had the data in order to arrest further decline of its market value.

    “Auditors from Stroz Friedberg were on site at Cambridge Analytica’s London office this evening,” the company said in a statement late Monday.

    “At the request of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which has announced it is pursuing a warrant to conduct its own on-site investigation, the Stroz Friedberg auditors stood down,” Facebook said.

    However, the London-based Cambridge Analytica has denied the media claims, stressing it deleted all Facebook data it obtained from a third-party application in 2014 after learning the information did not adhere to data protection rules.

    However, further allegations about the firm’s tactics were reported late Monday by British broadcaster Channel 4 which said it secretly taped interviews with senior Cambridge Analytica executives in which they boasted of their ability to sway elections in countries around the world with digital manipulation and traditional political trickery.

    Cambridge Analytica rejected the allegations, saying in a statement that the Channel 4 report “is edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations and how the company conducts its business.”

     

  • Zuckerberg under pressure as regulators probe into Facebook data practices

    British privacy regulators are seeking a warrant to search the offices of the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, following reports that the company may have improperly gained access to data on 50 million Facebook users.

    The move came as U.S. and European lawmakers demanded an explanation of how the consulting firm, which worked on President Donald Trump’s election campaign, gained access to the data.

    In the U.S., members of Congress called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about Facebook’s actions.

    Facebook said on Monday it had hired forensic auditors from the firm Stroz Friedberg to investigate and determine whether Cambridge Analytica still had the data.

    “Auditors from Stroz Friedberg were on site at Cambridge Analytica’s London office this evening,” the company said in a statement late Monday.

    “At the request of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which has announced it is pursuing a warrant to conduct its own on-site investigation, the Stroz Friedberg auditors stood down.”

    Facebook shares closed down nearly 7.0 per cent on Monday, wiping nearly $40 billion off its market value as investors worried that new legislation could damage the company’s advertising business.

    “The lid is being opened on the black box of Facebook data practices, and the picture is not pretty,” said Frank Pasquale, a University of Maryland law professor who has written about Silicon Valley’s use of data.

    Also on Monday, a source said that Facebook head of security, Alex Stamos, plans to leave the company over disagreements about the company’s policies on misinformation.

    He had been a strong advocate for an aggressive approach to alleged Russian activity on the platform aimed at manipulating elections.

    His departure was first reported by the New York Times. Facebook declined immediate comment.

    In a tweet, Stamos did not deny he was leaving but said: “Despite the rumors, I’m still fully engaged with my work at Facebook. It’s true that my role did change.”

    The criticism of Cambridge Analytica presents a new threat to Facebook’s reputation, which is already under attack over Russia’s alleged use of Facebook tools to sway U.S. voters with divisive and false news posts before and after the 2016 election.

    London-based Cambridge Analytica said it strongly denied the media claims, and that it deleted all Facebook data it obtained from a third-party application in 2014 after learning the information did not adhere to data protection rules.

    However, further allegations about the firm’s tactics were reported late Monday by British broadcaster Channel 4 which said it secretly taped interviews with senior Cambridge Analytica executives in which they boasted of their ability to sway elections in countries around the world with digital manipulation and traditional political trickery.

    Cambridge Analytica rejected the allegations, saying in a statement that the Channel 4 report “is edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations and how the company conducts its business.”

    Facebook was already facing calls on Saturday for regulation from the U.S. Congress after the reports in the New York Times and London’s Observer over the weekend.

    Republican Senator John Kennedy called on Zuckerberg to testify before Congress, and Democratic Senator Ron Widen sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking about company policies for sharing user data with third parties.

    Facebook usually sends lawyers to testify to Congress, or allows trade organizations to represent it and other technology companies in front of lawmakers.

    Facebook and other social media companies including Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube have taken voluntary steps to restrict possible foreign interference and combat false news, but they have not been forced by law or regulation to make changes and legislation on the issue has stalled.

    Late on Monday, the Connecticut Attorney General said the office will initiate an inquiry into Facebook data policies.

    The Senate was expected to move forward on Monday with a bill that would chip away at the internet industry’s legal shield, a decades-old law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, with a bill intended to address online sex trafficking.

    The measure has already passed the House and is expected to soon become law.

     

  • Revealed! Trust, familiarity indices to determine news ranking on Facebook

    In order to make Facebook more fun and less frustrating, the social media giant has announced it will use the indices of users who trust a news source against those who are familiar with it, to determine news ranking on the platform.

    This is contained in separate releases published Facebook Head of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, and Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, in efforts to make sure the time people spend on Facebook is time well spent.

    In what seems to be Facebook’s manifesto for 2018, Zuckerberg had said the topnotch social media firm “has a lot of work to do” in the New Year, and that Facebook plans major changes to news feed from media and businesses to focus on personal interactions.

    “Last week I announced a major change to encourage meaningful social interactions with family and friends over passive consumption.

    “Today I’m sharing our second major update this year: to make sure the news you see, while less overall, is high quality.

    “I’ve asked our product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local. And we’re starting next week with trusted sources.

    “We decided that having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.

    “We will now ask people whether they’re familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source.

    “We eliminate from the sample those who aren’t familiar with a source, so the output is a ratio of those who trust the source to those who are familiar with it,” Zuckerberg said.

    Mosseri in a blog post said, “In 2018, we will prioritize: news from publications that the community rates as trustworthy, news that people find informative and news that is relevant to people’s local community”.

    Facebook users have complained that the platform is becoming less fun and more frustrating.

    “I just wish Facebook would work like it used to. I frequently cannot see things I have posted. I do not get current post from friends. I will check something out and when I go back, I am receiving notifications from days or even weeks earlier.

    “I get ads from places I have absolutely no interest in. I have reset my preferences regularly and it does not help. I have other family members and friends who are having the same issues. Facebook has stopped being fun and is now frustrating,” one Facebook user lamented.

    Zuckerberg has said all of these, and others would change.

    “There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them,” he expressly stated.

    “This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook. It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community.

    “My hope is that this update about trusted news and last week’s update about meaningful interactions will help make time on Facebook time well spent,” he further stated.

     

  • Mark Zuckerberg just added new friend to Facebook’s board

    Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, just announced American Express outgoing CEO, Kenneth Chenault, has joined the social media platform’s Board of Directors.

    Zuckerberg made this known in a statement yesterday stressing he had been trying to get Kenneth into the Facebook’s board for years.

    “I’m excited to announce that Kenneth Chenault, the outgoing CEO of American Express, has agreed to join Facebook’s Board of Directors,” said Zuck, adding “I’ve been trying to recruit Ken for years”.

    Speaking on the prowess of Ken, Zuck said “He has unique expertise in areas I believe Facebook needs to learn and improve — customer service, direct commerce, and building a trusted brand”.

    He also said Ken has a strong sense of social mission and the perspective that comes from running an important public company for decades.

    “Adding someone to our board is one of the most important decisions our board makes.

    “It’s a long process that I take very seriously since this is the group that ultimately governs Facebook.

    “Ken and I have had dinners discussing our mission and strategy for years, and he has already helped me think through some of the bigger issues I’m hoping we take on this year.

    “Welcome Ken, and I’m looking forward to working with you on our board!” Zuck said.

    In his comments, Ken said, “I’m delighted to join the board and look forward to working with Mark and the other directors as Facebook continues to build communities that help bring people closer to friends, family and the world around them”.

    Mr. Chenault has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company since April 2001.

    He joined American Express in 1981 and was named President of the US division of American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. in 1993; Vice Chairman of American Express Company in 1995; President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997; and Chief Executive Officer in January 2001.

    The new Facebook director holds a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

    He serves on the Boards of IBM, The Procter & Gamble Company, the Harvard Corporation and numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, the Smithsonian Institution’s Advisory Council for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. He is also a member of the Business Council.

    Aside from Mr. Chenault, Facebook’s current board members are: Mark Zuckerberg; Marc L. Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz; Erskine B. Bowles, president emeritus, University of North Carolina; Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann, CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO, Netflix; Jan Koum, founder and CEO, WhatsApp; Sheryl K. Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook; and Peter A. Thiel, Founders Fund.

    TheNewsGuru reports his appointment is effective February 5, 2018.

     

  • Mark Zuckerberg presents Facebook 2018 manifesto

    Mark Zuckerberg presents Facebook 2018 manifesto

    Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facebook Inc., Mark Zuckerberg has said the topnotch social media firm “has a lot of work to do” in the year 2018.

    The Facebook CEO made this known in a statement today in what seems to be the platform’s manifesto for the year.

    “Today feels a lot like that first year. The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do — whether it’s protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent,” Zuckerberg stated.

    He explained that 2018 for him would be a personal challenge year in which his firm will focus on fixing these important issues.

    “We won’t prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools. If we’re successful this year then we’ll end 2018 on a much better trajectory,” he said.

    “This may not seem like a personal challenge on its face, but I think I’ll learn more by focusing intensely on these issues than I would by doing something completely separate.

    “These issues touch on questions of history, civics, political philosophy, media, government, and of course technology,” he further stated.

    He revealed that Facebook would be bringing groups of experts together to discuss and help work through these key issues.

    “For example, one of the most interesting questions in technology right now is about centralization vs decentralization.

    “A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hands. (The first four words of Facebook’s mission have always been “give people the power”.) Back in the 1990s and 2000s, most people believed technology would be a decentralizing force.

    “But today, many people have lost faith in that promise. With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it,” he said.

    “There are important counter-trends to this –like encryption and cryptocurrency — that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands.

    “But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I’m interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services.

    “This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I’m looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together,” he added.

     

  • Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg gets $23.6 billion richer

    Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg gets $23.6 billion richer

    Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg got $23.6 billion richer in 2017 in a list of biggest billionaire gainers of 2017 released by Forbes.

    Forbes tracked the net worth of more than 2,000 billionaires in 2017 with Jeff Bezos, the richest person on earth since October, leading the 2017 biggest billionaire gainers list.

    TheNewsGuru reports Forbes measured the gains between January 1, 2017 and December 14, 2017, and with the development, Zuckerberg’s net worth now stands at $72 billion.

    The 10 biggest billionaire gainers added a total of $204 billion to their fortunes, compared to a mere $74.7 billion gain in 2016.

    Zuckerberg’s Facebook has been on a steady roll in 2017, its stock up by nearly 60%, bolstered by growth in mobile advertising, Forbes stated in a web post.

    In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced they would give away 99% of their Facebook shares to philanthropic causes.

    “Zuckerberg also requested the creation of a new class of shares which would allow him to retain his voting control over the company. After a public outcry, Zuckerberg, who cofounded Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19 and holds about a 17% stake in the company, scrapped the plans in September.

    “The 33-year old billionaire also announced that he will expedite his philanthropic efforts and sell 35 million to 75 million Facebook shares over the next 18 months to fund a variety of causes,” Forbes narrated.

    Others who topped the gainers list are: world’s richest real estate tycoon, Hui Ka Yan; LVMH’s CEO, Bernard Arnault; Chinese tech billionaire and Tencent Holdings’ chairman, Ma Huateng; and the fourth richest person in the world in 2010, Mukesh Ambani.

    Others are: Carlos Slim Helu & family, Yang Huiyan, Larry Ellison, and Francois Pinault & family, who made the top 10 gainers list.

     

  • Photo: Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, wife welcome second child

    The Chief Executive Officer and founder of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced the birth of their second child, a baby girl named August.

    Mark Zuckerberg expressed his happiness on his Facebook page.

    Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that his wife, Priscilla Chan, has given birth to their second child, a baby girl named August.

    Mark Zuckerberg expressed his happiness on his Facebook page in a letter he wrote to the new baby.

    Dear August,

    Welcome to the world! Your mom and I are so excited to see who you will become.

    When your sister was born, we wrote a letter about the world we hoped she and now you will grow up in — a world with better education, fewer diseases, stronger communities, and greater equality.

    We wrote that with all the advances in science and technology, your generation should live dramatically better lives than ours, and we have a responsibility to do our part to make that happen. Even though headlines often focus on what’s wrong, we still believe these positive trends will win out. We’re optimists about your generation and the future.

    But rather than write about growing up, we want to talk about childhood. The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s important to make time to go outside and play.

    You will be busy when you’re older, so I hope you take time to smell all the flowers and put all the leaves you want in your bucket now.

    I hope you read your favorite Dr. Seuss books so many times you start inventing your own stories about the Vipper of Vipp. I hope you ride the carousel with Max until you’ve tamed every color horse. I hope you run as many laps around our living room and yard as you want. And then I hope you take a lot of naps. I hope you’re a great sleeper. And I hope even in your dreams you can feel how much we love you.

    Childhood is magical. You only get to be a child once, so don’t spend it worrying too much about the future. You’ve got us for that, and we’ll do everything we possibly can to make sure the world is a better place for you and all children in your generation.

     

    August, we love you so much and we’re so excited to go on this adventure with you. We wish you a life of joy, love and the same hope you give us.

    Love,

    Mom and Dad ”

     

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the couple had, four months ago, disclosed that they would be having a new addition.

    Last week, Zuckerberg also announced that he would be taking time off work to attend to family matters.

    Mark and Priscilla had their first child about two years ago.

     

     

  • Mark Zuckerberg gets $3.5 billion richer in the last five days

    Recent financial reports show that Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg got $3.5 billion richer in the last five days.

    This is an outstanding feat considering the fact that there is a global outcry of financial lack in every nook and cranny.

    Forbes reports that the shares of Facebook, which have risen nearly 40% since the start of 2017, continue to gain altitude, and that expectations of strong second-quarter earnings, to be announced at the end of the month, has helped drive Facebook stock to an all-time high on Friday.

    That surge has further padded the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg, who holds roughly 17% of Facebook’s outstanding shares and a majority of its voting power, to go higher by $3.5 billion richer in the last five days, Forbes said.

    Just 33 years old, Zuckerberg is now worth an estimated $66.7 billion – a record high – according to Forbes’ real-time rankings of the world’s billionaires. He is the sixth-richest person on the planet and the only thirty-something to rank in the top 50.

    Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 as a 19-year-old student at Harvard; he later dropped out as a sophomore. The business, which began as a small social networking platform for Ivy League universities, now has more than 2 billion monthly active users.

    Zuckerberg was not the only technology billionaire to have a lucrative week.

    The net worth of Bill Gates, the planet’s wealthiest individual, rose $900 million to an estimated $90 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also did spectacularly well; his fortune jumped $1.9 billion, to an estimated $85.2 billion. He remains the world’s second-richest person.