“But we wanted to put out the maximum we felt that it could be as soon as we had that analysis done”, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNN. The company makes nearly all its revenue and profit from advertising.
Advertisement
Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer, dropped a bombshell yesterday: Facebook might have “improperly shared” the data of up to 87 million people with Cambridge Analytica, the United Kingdom -based political consulting firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Facebook has acknowledged that data from more than 300,000 Australians may have been improperly shared with the analysis company – out of some 87 million users worldwide.
Consider the Federal Trade Commission, which is the primary agency that regulates internet companies these days.
“Consumers are not in the position to know that the company passes on its data also for commercial use”, he said.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie has said that at least 50 million accounts were compromised after users took a personality quiz that then collected data from users and their friends.
The world’s largest social-media company made a dizzying array of privacy-related disclosures this week, including a new data policy, updated terms of service and confirmation that it scans links and images that people send via its Messenger service.
That has raised the prospect of FTC fines, but Ms. andberg isn’t concerned.
“We built this feature, and it’s very useful”.
Several members of Congress had called for Zuckerberg to testify after the Cambridge Analytica story was reported by the New York Times, the Guardian and the Observer of London on March 17.
“That would be a paid product”, she said. The company has worked directly with governments that went on to use the social network against their people, and advertisers that ran anti-Muslim content, for example.
Reports also surfaced detailing AIQ’s alleged ties to Cambridge Analytica, and to the U.K.’s Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum.
“Since we became aware of their activity after the 2016 USA elections, we’ve been working to root out the IRA and protect the integrity of elections around the world”, he said. “Whether or not laws are passed”.
Sandberg added that the company was having reassuring conversations about how it has built privacy into its system and said that despite the scandal they will not stop working with political advertisers. “We are massively investing in smart technology”.
Advertisement
“With important elections coming up in the US, Mexico, Brazil, India, Pakistan and more countries in the next year, one of my top priorities for 2018 is making sure we support positive discourse and prevent interference in these elections”, Zuckerberg revealed in an official post on Facebook.
