Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, while testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has revealed that his personal data was also a part of the 87 million users’ data that was exposed to Cambridge Analytica.
The tech billionaire was summoned to the Capitol Hill for the second round of questioning on Facebook’s failure to protect user data and prevention of data misuse by Cambridge Analytica that caused political interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
This revelation was made in the questioning round fired by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, representative of Silicon Valley, when she asked Zuckerberg whether his data was also leaked in the massive data breach.
“Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties? Your personal data?” asked Eshoo.
To which Zuckerberg replied, “Yes.”
In the 4 minutes of tensed exchange, the representative also asked Zuckerberg if he was willing to change Facebook’s business model to protect the privacy of people who use the social media platform. But the CEO’s answer seemed quite noncommittal when he said, “Congresswoman, I’m not sure what that means.”
As for now, there is no information on how Zuckerberg’s data was extracted – by installing ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ app himself or through one of his added friends. Nevertheless, this confession has given rise to some distressing concerns about the platform and a lingering question – is anyone’s data on Facebook safe at all?.
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