Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg admitted his company made mistakes by letting firm Cambridge Analytica harvest users data.
In a statement published Wednesday, the multi-billionaire said: ‘We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you.
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‘I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago.
‘But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.’
Zuckerberg then shared a timeline of events which claimed Facebook banned a developer from using a data-harvesting app on the platform.
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That information was reportedly passed to Cambridge Analytica later on, with the firm crediting it for helping Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
The Facebook founder announced a crackdown on developers using data harvesting apps.
He also said people signing into apps from now on would only be sharing their name, profile photo and email address with said apps.
From next month, Facebook users will also easily be able to see which apps have accessed their data, and be given a simple way of revoking permissions.
Zuckerberg concluded: ‘I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform.
‘I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community.
‘While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn’t change what happened in the past.
‘We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.’
Zuckerberg was spurred into action amid a growing online movement calling for people to delete Facebook entirely.
Critics say the social networking site acts as an insidious surveillance tool that gleans far too much information about users’ private lives.
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