Mark Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Breached Users' Trust

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is speaking publicly for the first time since a whistleblower described how a data firm exploited a loophole to access to data from 50 million Facebook users. 

Hours after releasing a statement on Facebook, Zuckerberg spoke to Wired editor-in-chief Nick Thompson about what he called "one of our biggest mistakes."

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Statement

Thompson spoke to CBSN about his interview with Zuckerberg, who revealed "there are probably 15 changes" it will take "to further restrict data." He also told CBSN's Elaine Quijano that Facebook isn't so great at worst case scenarios and that it's inevitable that Zuckerberg testifies in front of Congress.

Both Zuckerberg and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg remained silent amid reports that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which has links to President Trump's 2016 campaign, exploited a loophole in Facebook that allowed it to access data using an app created by a third-party research firm. Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica last week, saying the firm had not deleted the data in 2015, as it had claimed to. 

Facebook learned about the Cambridge Analytica incident in late 2015 and had the firm sign a legal undertaking that the data would be deleted, Thompson wrote in his article. But this week's reports that cast doubt on that set of circumstances. Thompson questioned Zuckerberg about not digging deeper into Cambridge Analytica in his Wired magazine article titled: "Mark Zuckerberg talks to Wired about Facebook's privacy problem."

"The first action that we now need to go take is to not just rely on certifications that we've gotten from developers, but actually need to go and do a full investigation of every single app that was operating before we had the more restrictive platform policies -- that had access to a lot of data -- and for any app that has any suspicious activity, we're going to go in and do a full forensic audit," Zuckerberg said. "And any developer who won't sign up for that, we're going to kick off the [Facebook] platform."

Zuckerberg spoke to CNN's Laurie Segall, saying he would "be happy to" answer questions before Congress. 

"What we try to do is send the person at Facebook who will have the most knowledge," Zuckerberg said. "If that's me, then I am happy to go." 
Facebook has come under increasing fire for failing to protect users' data early enough and strongly enough, and also for how it pushed back on the misuse of 50 million users' data, seemingly focusing on the semantics of whether or not it amounted to a "data breach" in the strictest sense.