Facebook will investigate tens of thousands of apps to discover if any other companies have accessed data in a similar way to Cambridge Analytica. It听will look for听misuses of personal information听and then听alert users if it finds anything suspicious. The announcement came from Facebook鈥檚 boss Mark Zuckerberg as he answered questions in front of the US Senate鈥檚 Judiciary and Commerce Committees yesterday.
Facebook had not taken a broad enough view of its responsibility for people鈥檚 public information, said Zuckerberg.听鈥淚t was my mistake, and I鈥檓 sorry. I started听Facebook, I run it, and I鈥檓 responsible for what happens here,鈥� he said.
The social network is in the process of letting up to 87 million users know that their information may have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica. You can check if you were affected by .
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When asked why the company did not immediately alert the 87 million users whose data may have been improperly accessed when first told about it听in 2015, Zuckerberg said听Facebook听considered it a 鈥渃losed case鈥� after Cambridge Analytica said they had deleted it. 鈥淚n retrospect it was clearly a mistake to believe them,鈥� he said.
Cambridge Analytica insists it deleted the harvested data as soon as it was informed it breached听Facebook鈥檚 terms of use.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face multiple lawsuits over alleged misuse of personal information with at least five law firms in the UK and US investigating claims for compensation.
On the subject of fake news, Mr Zuckerberg said 鈥渙ne of my greatest regrets in running the company鈥� was its slowness at uncovering and acting against disinformation campaigns by Russian trolls during the US election. He said the Russian campaign of disinformation had been discovered 鈥渞ight around the time鈥� of the US presidential election, and said the company had developed 鈥渘ew AI tools鈥� to identify fake accounts responsible. 鈥淵ou know there are people in Russia whose job is to exploit our systems鈥� so this is an arms race,鈥� he said.
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