Zuckerberg Admits Mistakes Were Made Concerning Data Collection By App

[Guest_Jim_*]

A recent topic in the news has been Cambridge Analytica, a company that had data for millions of Facebook users, despite most never approving their data being collected this way. It took some time, but Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has finally commented on the story, admitting Facebook made mistakes. According to him though, "the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago." This is a reference to changes in the Facebook developer platform policies made in 2014, but it was prior to this the 'thisisyourdigital life' app that collected the data was made and used. The app was made by a university academic Aleksandr Kogan and it paid some 300,000 users to take a personality test and have their data collected for academic use. The way the numbers went from 300,000 users to 50 million users is because the app also collected data on the friends of the approving 300,000.

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook learned of Kogan sharing the collected data with Cambridge Analytica, and the company reacted by banning the app and demanding both Kogan and Cambridge Analytica delete all of the improperly acquired data. While both provided certifications that they had deleted the data, it appears Cambridge Analytica did not, which has prompted the current controversy and Facebook to respond by promising to do more to protect users' data.

Part of the response is going to be an audit of all apps that had access to large amounts of data prior to the 2014 changes, and any developer that does not agree to the audit will be banned. Also developers will lose access to a user's data if they have not used the app for three months, and users will have a tool at the top of the News Feed indicating the apps they have used and a means to revoke permissions to the data. The amount of data an app can get when you sign in will also be reduced to just your name, profile photo, and email address.

Source: The Inquirer

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[Braegnok]

It was time for me yesterday. #deletefacebook

Edited March 24, 2018 by Braegnok

[AkakmanH]

I do not normally respond to what are, basically, political theorems. I do not understand what the problem is. The Dems, under Obama, made heavy use of the Facebook database. So, why was it wrong for the Trump group to do it. Going back in time, before FB, companies compiled mailing lists of people and their political affiliations. They then sold said list to whomever wanted them. FB did the same thing - that is - compiled a database of users by political or possible political affiliation and then allow companies to access that database for a fee. All that has changed is the method of compiling the lists. Even though the Dems are crying foul, they are just a guilty of using the data as the Reps. Database creation and accesses like this are not going away.