Zuckerberg accepts Facebook 'made mistakes' in Cambridge Analytica issue

He said in a post on Facebook that the company "made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it"

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that the social media company made mistakes that allowed data about users to end up with the analytics firm Cambridge Analytica and said the company would make changes.

Zuckerberg, in his first comments since the company disclosed on Friday the misuse of personal data, said in a post on Facebook that the company "made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."

In his Facebook post, he also narrated the timeline of events as it happened and how Cambridge Analytica managed to obtain this data.

In 2013 a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app which was installed by around 300,000 people who had shared their data as well as some of their friends' data with Kogan's app.

In 2015, Facebook learned from The Guardian that Kogan had shared data from his app with Cambridge Analytica. Post this, Facebook banned the app and demanded that Kogan and Cambridge Analytica deleted the data which they have acquired illegitimately. Facebook demanded a certificate for the same which the two parties concerned furnished. 

Last week Facebook came to know about the Cambridge Analytica using that data (which they had certified that it has been deleted) was used to sway the voters opinion during 2016 US presidential elections in favour of Donald Trump. 

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerburg in his Facebook post also mentioned some of the ways in which the company will review their data usage policy.  

He further said that "We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward."

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in a Facebook post of her own said that "You deserve to have your information protected - and we'll keep working to make sure you feel safe on Facebook. Your trust is at the core of our service. We know that and we will work to earn it"