Mark Zuckerberg Apologises As Facebook Admits To Cambridge Analytica Data Breach

Facebook Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg has admitted to lapses in user data protection in light of the Cambridge Analytica breach and has promised a much stricter data protection system to make sure that such breaches don’t happen in the future, Mint has reported.

Zuckerberg said that Facebook had the responsibility to protect the user data it has, failing which “we don’t deserve to serve you”.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg has listed out the steps Facebook had taken before the breach, but also said that more steps need to be taken and the company recognises that. He also listed out the measures that will be put in place to ensure data safety.

Facebook has been under fire since last week with news of Cambridge Analytica having accessed data of 50 million Facebook users to influence the US presidential elections in 2016.

Facebook also said that it will notify the users whose data has been misused by applications linked to Facebook.

Sandy Parakilas, who worked on user data protection at Facebook 2011 and 2012 had on Wednesday (21 March) informed a UK parliamentary committee that personal data like email addresses and even private messages was allowed to leave Facebook servers with no real controls on how the data was used after that.

Cambridge Analytica’s role in influencing the US presidential elections, when Donald Trump came to power is now under scrutiny and is being investigated by the authorities.