Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Vows to Clamp Down on Platform After Privacy Scandal

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out finally, breaking his silence on the major privacy scandal linked to Cambridge Analytica, which has sent the social network free falling, losing $60 billion US in market value.

Fb login default

According to Zuckerberg’s timeline of events, the data leak was linked to a personality quiz app created by Cambridge University researcher, Aleksandr Kogan back in 2013. This quiz was installed by roughly 300,000 people who gave their data and friends data to the quiz, providing Kogan with “access to tens of millions of their friends’ data.”

In 2015, The Guardian exposed Kogan and said his data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Facebook says it banned the developer’s app and was formally reassured from both Kogan and Cambridge Analytical “that they had deleted all improperly acquired data,” with certifications to prove it.

But as we know it, Cambridge Analytica did not delete this information, which Zuckerberg says “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.”

Some changes coming to Facebook and how it handles developers are coming:

  • All apps with access to large amounts of data prior to 2014 will be audited
  • Facebook users will be informed if their data was misused
  • Access to Facebook data will be disabled for apps unused for the last three months
  • Facebook login data to be restricted soon, to only include name, profile photo and email address

Facebook says it will also “Encourage people to manage the apps they use” and expand their bug bounty program, so let people inform the social network if app developers are misusing personal data.

Facebook as a platform for logging into apps should have only had name and Facebook email address as information. For far too long, developers would require users to login and reveal so much profile information, but many took the plunge for the sake of a ‘one-click’ login, to avoid creating yet another email/password combination.

Click here to learn how to remove your private Facebook data, just short of deleting your account (which WhatsApp’s co-founder recommends you do).

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