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| Zuckerberg repeated that Facebook had changed the rules so no such data breach could happen again. (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson) |
London (AFP) - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologise for a huge data privacy scandal.
"We
have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't we don't deserve
it," he said.
The ads ran
in prominent positions in six British nationals, including the best-selling
Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times and The Observer -- which helped break the
story -- as well as the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street
Journal.
Zuckerberg
explained there was a quiz developed by a university researcher "that
leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014".
"This
was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now
taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.
The ad
reflects public statements Zuckerberg made last week after the row prompted
investigations in Europe and the United States, and sent Facebook's share price
plunging.
He repeated
that the social media giant had changed the rules on apps so no such data
breach could happen again.
"We're
also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data
before we fixed this. We expect there are others," he wrote.
"And
when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected."
There was
no mention of the British firm accused of using the data, Cambridge Analytica,
which worked on US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
It too has
blamed the University of Cambridge researcher Alexsandr Kogan, for any
potential breach of data rules
Kogan
created a lifestyle quiz app for Facebook which was downloaded by 270,000
people, but allowed access to tens of millions of their contacts.
Facebook
says he passed this to Cambridge Analytica without its knowledge. Kogan
says he is being made a scapegoat.
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